


Bright, Rich, Sweet

by brainofck



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Blood Drinking, Bloodplay, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-28
Updated: 2011-07-28
Packaged: 2017-10-21 20:51:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/229721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brainofck/pseuds/brainofck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A vampire cannot live by (chicken) blood alone. Jack becomes a vampire.  (Warning for non-con is because of dub-con.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A long time ago in a community far, far away...
> 
> In late September 2007, a person posted a request to [mckay_sheppard](http://www.livejournal.com/users/mckay_sheppard/) for vampire stories. I thought, hey, I could knock out a J/D story in time for Halloween!
> 
> Well, I'm in plenty of time for Halloween 2008! :D (Original publication date for this series on LJ was March 29, 2008.)
> 
> Does one warn for bloodplay in a vampire story? Het content, later chapters.
> 
> A large section of this story was co-authored by [Cocoajava](http://cocoajava.livejournal.com) (Approximately Chapter 3)

The klaxon for unscheduled offworld activation was sounding and the iris clanged closed.

"I'm getting SG-11's IDC, sir," Harriman informed him.

Jack nodded.

"Open the iris, Sergeant."

He trotted down the stairs, waiting to let the Marines and SFs stampede by him, following them at a leisurely pace. The geek squad was on a planet they had visited many times. The natives were friendly, the goa'uld nothing but a very old, distant memory to them. They had no use for naquadah and were thrilled to be getting medical supplies and agricultural advisors out of the previously worthless ore. This would just be one of the geeks down at the archaeological site coming back unexpectedly to consult with Daniel. Or maybe one of the mine crew had busted an ankle.

Jack stood back out of the line of fire, hand resting lightly on his sidearm, not really expecting any trouble.

To his surprise, _all_ of SG-11 came through, along with a couple of the miners. They looked tired and pale.

Then Dr. Sinclair, the head of the archaeology expedition, gave an ungodly bloodcurdling yell. And they attacked.

* * *

Jack awoke to the too-clean smell of the filtered air of an infirmary isolation room. He knew even before he opened his eyes exactly where he was. He could practically _hear_ the shape of the room, with its lack of furnishings. What he didn't understand was how he got here or why he was slumped in the corner on the floor instead of resting on the uncomfortable bed.

He sat up woozily and looked around. Something was weird with his vision. Edges were too perfectly defined. Colors were exceptionally sharp, making the drab grey walls appear richly textured with silver and blue and white and charcoal. The floor was similar, though more blue and white.

As his eyes traveled the room, he found himself looking at Daniel sitting in the observation area. He was absorbed in something on his laptop, quick, bright eyes occasionally flitting back and forth to the large dusty-smelling books piled around him on the table.

That gave Jack pause.

He sniffed. Something must be wrong with the HEPA system. He could definitely smell the books. He could also smell Daniel, who smelled of books, and shampoo and worry, in addition to coffee, lack of sleep, and Salisbury steak. And that really sexy muskiness he got about eight hours after his shower. Jack could sniff that all day.

How could Daniel smell like worry and lack of sleep?

Then he realized he could smell the guard detail outside the door. Four guys? That seemed excessive. And there were guards outside the observation room as well. That was definitely out of the ordinary. They smelled bored.

All this not to mention the fact that Daniel was glowing. Softly emitting warmth and light, haloed by a golden, pulsing radiance.

Man, it had to be a doozie of a concussion.

"He has awakened," intoned the man sitting by Daniel in the booth. Jack heard him without the aid of the intercom system.

That man did not glow. Interesting.

* * *

Jack watched the video a third time.

SG-11 came through the gate. They bared their fangs and attacked. Reactions were slow, and by the time Gateroom contingent realized the danger, SG-11 was already ripping out throats with teeth and claw.

Jack looked closely at his own fingers. The claws appeared to be retractable. Creepy.

Jack didn't remember any of it. He watched himself engage in hand-to-hand with Dr. Tarlton. Even taken by surprise, Jack should have been able to handle the newest archaeologist. The man put the dweeb in dweeb. Jack watched with a sense of unreality as Tarlton stabbed long claws into Jack's biceps and pulled him down to the floor. At least Jack managed to maneuver back on top, which must have been quite a trick – those claws must have hurt like a bitch. He absently brushed his upper arm under the short sleeve of the scrubs he was wearing. No scars.

Jack actually looked like he was getting control again when Dr. Leda came up behind him. It was like watching an old Hammer film. She bent over him and sank her long fangs into Jack's neck. He went down instantly, collapsing onto Tarlton, who bit into the other shoulder.

"They exsanguinated you. You had just enough blood left for your heart to keep beating, but it was touch and go," Fraiser said, as she came to sit next to him.

He was still in isolation.

"Apparently, they can transmit a retroviral venom," the doctor continued as Jack hit the skip back button to watch the whole thing over again. "If they envenomate a victim who survives the exsanguination, as you did, the retrovirus alters the victim's DNA and the body undergoes changes."

"Nice," Jack said flatly. "You know how we all love a good retrovirus. Loads of laughs, those retroviruses."

Fraiser gave him a pained smile. She gestured to the other person who had entered the room with her. It was that guy who had been in the observation deck with Daniel when Jack woke up. The guy who didn't glow. Everybody else glowed. The doc was a kind of vibrant lavender color. Carter was a pure, bright blue. Teal'c was a pulsing, dark red. Sorta. It was hard to make it fit exactly into the way he was used to describing his senses. But anyway, whatever it was, this guy didn't have it.

"I am hoping Gyan will have information that can help us," Dr. Fraiser said. "He's from the planet."

"He's a vampire," Jack suddenly realized. And just as suddenly he leaped to put himself between Fraiser and this new threat. The doc gave an undignified shriek of surprise, but Gyan just frowned disapprovingly and stepped back.

"You will need to learn to control your behavior in the presence of humans," Gyan said testily. "Moving so fast frightens them and you must learn not to frighten them, if you don't want to kill them. Or meet the same fate as your SG-11."

"Listen, buddy, it seems to me that _you_ are the reason we had to murder our own people. You just step back from the good doctor, why don't you..." The good doctor, who was circling him, staring with eyes a little too wide.

"What?!" Jack demanded.

"Sir, you just moved faster than I could see," she said slowly. "First you were there, then you were here." She pointed to where he had been, and where he was standing now. "And was Gyan just speaking to you?"

Jack shut his eyes tightly and pinched the bridge of his nose. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

* * *

Jack was delaying. Dragging his feet. Sulking. Hammond might have ordered him to meet with Gyan, but that didn't mean Jack had to be gracious about it. Or even particularly adult.

Becoming a vampire was apparently supposed to mean months, if not years, of training and supervision by other vampires. And Daniel and Hammond apparently thought this Gyan guy was a "wonderful resource." Wonderful resource, Jack's ass.

He could hear him talking to Daniel from several corridors away. Jack was still mastering the super-sensitive hearing thing, but it was already less intrusive than it had been the first few days. He was learning to filter it, and ignore what he didn't focus on. He could imagine it wouldn't be annoying at all in a couple of weeks, once he adapted.

This vampire gig could have serious benefits in the field. If he didn't burn up to a crispy critter in the sun first.

"Dr. Jackson. I appreciate your eagerness, but it is far too early for me to begin the training of the Companion," Gyan said, a smile in his voice. "I will begin by meeting with Jack, and when he is ready, he will show you what you need to know."

"I realize this may not be conventional," Daniel replied in his best let's-be-reasonable voice. "Unfortunately, I don't think it is possible to overstate _exactly_ how much Colonel O'Neill does not want to meet with you. I think you should assume that you will need to educate me so that I can help the Colonel."

 _Go, Daniel._ It was too much to hope that he could weasel out of this entirely, but maybe Daniel could deal with Gyan, and then Jack would just have to deal with Daniel.

"But that is not possible, Dr. Jackson!"

 _Of course not,_ Jack sighed.

"He must be taught! He should come back with me to his Clan, where he can be protected and learn his history and his Hunger. You would be safe there! He cannot stay here alone and uneducated and completely uncontrolled!"

 _Whoo, boy._ Jack was going to have to set this guy straight about some things, starting with this whole "clan" idea.

"Gyan, if Colonel O'Neill does come to meet with you, I think you should be careful about suggesting that he is now part of your 'clan,'" Daniel said carefully.

 _Damn straight_ , Jack thought.

"I tell you what," Daniel continued. Jack could hear Gyan pacing. "Why don't you start by teaching me whatever you were planning to teach the Colonel's friends, then we can move on from there if we need to."

There was a pause.

"You said you were going to educate me?" Daniel prompted.

"Ah," Gyan replied. "The Clansman teaches his Companion. We do not usually interfere in that relationship unless it is absolutely necessary."

"Okaaay," Daniel replied. "So what exactly kind of relationship is this?" he asked.

Jack felt the need to stop this as soon as the word relationship came up.

"Starting without me?" he asked brightly from the doorway.

"Jack! Welcome!" Gyan said, as if he were not the intruder here.

Jack pulled up a chair at the table by Daniel, slouching and crossing his arms.

"So where were we?"

"Discussing the role of your Companion. Dr. Jackson is an excellent choice," Gyan said approvingly. "Healthy, intelligent, inquisitive, extremely handsome..."

"Whoa, there! No ogling the archaeologist! And nobody's selected anybody as a anything."

"Ah. Well," Gyan said, apparently nonplussed. "You will need to choose soon, Jack. You can only put off feeding for so long."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Daniel go pale, then flush.

"Let's not worry for now about feeding," Jack replied sharply. He saw Daniel opening his mouth to protest and shot him a hard, angry look.

"I want to talk about the day-to-day. Like, am I going to be having problems with severe sunburn?"

Gyan smiled thinly.

"Your skin will be much more sensitive to the sun, but the stories of vampires bursting into flame upon exposure to sunlight are complete myth. If you cover your skin, you should be fine. You will find that your eyes are extremely sensitive to light, as well. And you will tire easily in high temperatures, though you will find that exposure to cold will have much less effect on you than it does on humans."

"Great. I'll always wear a hat. What about risk to others? Can I infect other people?"

Gyan sighed.

"Jack, if you would let me begin your training properly..."

Under Jack's withering glare, Gyan sighed again.

"You will only infect people if you don't feed properly," he huffed. "I'm sure you are fully aware of the fixed canine teeth, used for feeding, but you may not have noticed the folded fangs. You will find them under a flap of skin on the outside of your gums above your feeding teeth."

Jack ran his tongue cautiously around his teeth. Yes, there were some strange lumps where Gyan described the retracted fangs should be.

"If you desire to bring a new member into the Clan, when you feed you bring out these retracted teeth. They will inject the serum into the Chosen one, and a new member of our Clan will join us."

Gyan smiled gently at Daniel.

"Quite often we bring our Companions into the Clan, if they so desire it."

Daniel flushed again.

"I told you, quit making eyes at Daniel. Nobody else is 'joining' your little clan, so just give it a rest."

Gyan shrugged.

"I would be proud to have Dr. Jackson as my kin one day. And you and your beloved might feel differently after you have adjusted and some years have passed. He will age much more quickly than you will."

 _Oh, boy._ Daniel managed to flush an even deeper red. Daniel was used to dealing with cultural misunderstandings, but they had never run into one where Daniel had been mistaken for Jack's lover. Maybe it was time to separate these two before Daniel realized Gyan had hit the nail on the head.

"Alright, let's just set some ground rules here," Jack began, but Daniel interrupted him, plowing forward despite his embarrassment.

"I'm fascinated by the way you seem to feel such strong family ties between the vampires you have converted," Daniel said.

"When we bring members into the Clan, it is with the full knowledge and consent of the Chosen. It is how we create our families. We do not mate and carry children to term, as some species do. Instead, we offer a choice to thinking individuals, letting them decide to become part of the Clan. Our numbers grow steadily, and our bonds are close."

"Really?" Jack said, with a meaningful lift of eyebrows. Gyan looked regretful.

"What happened to your people on my world was a terrible accident, though it is not unheard of. Very rarely, someone will spontaneously become one of us without being bitten. When that happens, there is no one to guide the new Clan member through the feral state, and they will behave as you witnessed."

"Right. Spontaneously," Jack muttered.

Gyan's lips thinned in annoyance.

"The Clan only brings new members into the family of their free will. This is how we have cohabited with humans on our world so successfully. Indeed, we have no desire to live for hundreds of years with a kinsman who hates us. Or himself. Or both."

"Someone like me, for instance," Jack said with a short laugh.

"This is how we build our families," Gyan repeated softly. "I know you are unhappy about what has happened, but we _would_ welcome you. We _do_."

Jack snorted.

"Great. So, when do I learn how to turn into a bat?"

Gyan's eyes narrowed. Daniel sighed long-sufferingly.

* * *

Jack didn't do lunch in the commissary anymore. What would that be like? Eat a big bowl of steaming chicken blood and hope people thought it was tomato soup? Drink it with a straw from an oversized styrofoam cup, like they served sodas in? Oh! Or a Big Gulp* cup. That would be funny.

He missed doing lunch, though. It was a time to connect with people in a less professional way. It was a time when you could joke and laugh and steal pie from frightened subordinates or annoyed teammates.

He missed pie.

So he brought some to Daniel, whom Dr. Fraiser informed him was missing a lot more meals than usual since Jack stopped having lunch.

"It's only been a few weeks, and I'm already seeing weight loss. Combine that with the amount of coffee he drinks, and I'm going to have him in here with caffeine poisoning. You wait."

"He's a big boy, doc. He'll eat when he's hungry."

There was a long pause as they stared at each other.

"Oh, alright. I'll try to be sure he eats. Maybe he'd like some nice beefy _blood_ ," Jack grumbled.

"Thank you, Colonel!" the doctor replied sweetly.

So he was bringing pie to Daniel. Well, cobbler, actually.

"Hey, Jack," Daniel said distractedly, barely looking up.

Jack waved the blueberry cobbler under Daniel's nose. His friend blinked a few times and took a deep sniff.

"Oh, that smells heavenly!" Daniel took a quick look at the clock and grimaced. "Is that the time?"

"The doc has officially put me in charge of making sure you eat. You can see how cruel that is, considering my current dietary restrictions, right? You gotta eat, Daniel."

Not that Daniel needed any encouragement. He fell upon the cobbler and melty ice cream like a starving man. Which Jack supposed he sorta was.

For a while now, Jack had been carefully monitoring his interactions with Daniel. They were only friends, after all. Jack didn't need to bring him little gifts and presents and hang out in his lab all the time. Jack was, after all, not _courting_ Daniel. Or flirting with him. Or trying to get his attention in any way.

So when Jack realized that he _was_ doing all those things, and further realized he was nursing a massive, huge, horrible crush on his friend, he sternly took himself in hand.

Not that way.

Well, that too, but mostly, he quit hanging around Daniel so much. They were just friends, and that was definitely what they were going to stay. There would be no court martial for an indiscreet midlife sexual crisis. Once he realized, he made sure there were only work-related visits to Daniel's office. Only occasional, friendly invitations to Jack's house and only for group events. No more sleeping over. Very limited, friendly, non-intrusive touching – hugging in cases of near-death experiences only.

It was hard at the beginning, but Jack was nothing if not disciplined, no matter what his various commanding officers might say, and he _did_ get his crush tucked safely back under wraps before Daniel, or anybody else noticed.

But lunch was doable. Colleagues had lunch. When they didn't work closely together during the day, it even made some professional sense to eat lunch together. Touch base. Compare notes. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that watching a forkful of blueberry cobbler pass between Daniel's lips was one of the most erotic sights Jack had ever seen. Especially with ice cream on it. The pink tip of Daniel's tongue slipped out to collect a blue crumb from his upper lip. For a moment Jack forgot to breathe.

God, he missed pie.

Besides, he was here on the doctor's orders. Right.

"Huh. _I_ have to eat," Daniel mused. "Funny, that's what Gyan and Janet have been asking me to get you to do."

Jack groaned inwardly. Not this again. For approximately the two thousandth time. When he had refused to talk to Gyan about the subject of feeding, Gyan and Daniel had started discussing it themselves, when Jack wasn't there to intervene. He wasn't sure of all the details, but he knew Daniel was convinced that he should be Jack's Companion. He _so_ did not want to talk about it.

"I don't need a walking snack machine, Daniel. I'm doing just fine on chickens, pigs and cows, thanks for bringing it up."

It was gross, after all. Disgusting. Even moreso because he drank the stuff anyway and kinda liked it. It was thick and flavorful. Actually kind of like soup. It was good both hot and cold. Ew.

Daniel took another bite of blue cobbler and white creamy ice cream soup. If Jack were still capable of drooling, it would be dripping from his fangs by now. The smudge of ice cream left on Daniel's fingers from the spoon was extremely distracting.

"Gyan insists you need human blood," Daniel said, putting aside the bowl and fork. He leaned forward. "According to him when vampires die, it is almost always from starvation." Daniel's expression was determined. "I'm guessing the starved ones were all like you – too principled to resort to cannibalism, so no matter what else they ate, they eventually died because they wouldn't bite a human."

"As you can see, I'm not dying," Jack said. "Never been better. Just a little pale."

He would not admit to Daniel that he was hungry almost all the time. Instead, he gave Daniel the grin he had practiced. The one that _showed_ his fangs. He figured he might as well learn to use them to his best advantage to intimidate people.

Apparently, Daniel wasn’t impressed.

"Sam, Teal'c and I all agree that..."

Jack cut him off.

"Absolutely not. Do you think the reason is because I haven't had offers? Plenty of people would be happy to offer Colonel Vampire their necks." Jack scowled. "They all think they're gonna get off on it. You can tell. The guys and the gals. No. Way. Not them. Not you guys. Not anybody."

Especially not Daniel. Who might get off on it. Then where would Jack be?

"Jack, be reasonable."

"Daniel, when am I ever not?" he asked. Then, just to avoid the rest of whatever thing Daniel had to say, he used his new speed to swoop out of the room, down the hall, and through the closing elevator doors before Daniel had time to think of a suitable example. Harriman looked a little white around the eyes riding alone with him for eight levels, but Jack just gave him the other smile, the one he practiced _not_ showing his teeth, and wished at the end of the day he could just go home and have a beer. He sighed. So much for lunch.

* * *

Jack told Gyan to get lost after a couple of weeks. Jack had learned a lot of things that did not make him a happy camper. On top of that, Gyan would not quit with the beloved, Companion crap. Jack had responsibilities that kept him from being able to monitor all of Gyan's interactions with Daniel, and Jack didn't like to think what would happen if Daniel decided to ask the wrong questions, or Gyan decided to volunteer certain insights. Jack still couldn't figure out what he had done to give himself away to the vampire.

Still, Jack could probably deal with the worst-case scenarios involving the revelation of his crush on Daniel. What he couldn't tolerate any more was Gyan's insistence that Jack had to drink human blood. From a real human. Like a real vampire.

Because there was no way Jack was doing that. Not ever. He didn't care how benign Gyan tried to make it sound or what crap he was feeding Daniel about the "rich, fulfilling relationship" between the vampire and his regular chew toy.

They had a final face off on the ramp to the Gate, Jack at the bottom, and Gyan with his bag of goodies already a few steps up.

Daniel hovered in the background, his look saying that he completely disapproved.

"Jack, you must eat," the vampire said again. He looked harried and unkempt. Jack had not been a good student.

"Fine. The commissary has already tracked down a dozen suppliers."

"Don't be stupid," the vampire said, in that fast, high-pitched speech he used when he didn't want "humans" to hear what he said to Jack. "You must have human blood."

"Sorry," Jack said firmly in a normal voice so that everyone in the room could hear. "I'll work it out somehow. Off you go!" he said, making bat-flapping gestures just to tick the guy off. They had cleared that up on day one. Vampires didn't turn into things. Certainly not bats.

"Dr. Jackson," Gyan appealed. "Make him understand."

"Don't worry, Gyan," Daniel replied in his most reassuring, ignore-the-idiot-colonel voice. "We'll be in touch if we can't get along with the materials you left with me."

Gyan scowled. He was not leaving his materials willingly, but Dr. Fraiser had insisted that she was Jack's physician, and she had to know how to treat him. Plus Daniel had been positively drooling for a chance to get his hands on knowledge about real vampires, though he had pretended to be helping Gyan make Jack see reason. In the end, Gyan had allowed them to photocopy all the literature he had brought with him to try to educate his new Clansman, mainly because Jack had pointed out that under the circumstances they _could_ just keep everything they wanted for themselves and shove Gyan back through the wormhole without his precious, ancient tomes.

Daniel had given him the disapproving glare then, too. But he had been more than happy to trot off to the photocopiers. Daniel was a whore for primary sources, after all.

Gyan took one last look at the Gateroom, then turned and vanished through the Gate. Jack cringed at the startled gasps from the SFs supervising the vampire's departure. So much for not scaring the humans.

* * *

What had possessed him to try to drink a beer?

He knew he couldn’t eat solids. He knew he couldn't digest anything but blood without barfing his guts out.

So why had he come home, popped the top off a cold one, and chugged it down in one smooth, refreshing, mind-dampening draught?

Because he was a fucking _idiot_ he thought, as he lay in a puddle of regurgitated Guinness, still dry heaving and too weak and shaking to even consider crawling out to the truck where his cooler-full of blood was still waiting to be brought into the house.

Then Daniel, wonderful, perfect Daniel, was kneeling in the puddle beside him.

"Jack! Jack! What did you... Ew. That's disgusting. Jack! Did you try to drink beer?! Jack. Just hold on. You're going to be okay." Then Daniel moved out of Jack's narrowing field of vision. He could hardly breathe now. Though his need for actual respiration was much reduced as a vampire, he couldn't speak without air. Jack whined in his throat, but then Daniel was back, ripping the lid off the plastic quart bucket of blood and kneeling down beside him.

At this point, there was no way Jack could coordinate drinking. He felt the convulsions coming and they snapped his head back just as Daniel was trying to get an angle. He heard Daniel swear, then Jack felt a drop of liquid hit his cheek. It became a steady stream and moved to the corner of his mouth. Some of it trickled inside.

It was like a miracle cure. Once he managed to swallow some, the convulsions and dry heaves stopped immediately. Daniel stopped the flow and knelt beside him again. He helped Jack sit, propping him against the kitchen island, then held the blood to Jack's lips. His vision was filled with deep rich red as he sipped the liquid.

"I think it's okay now," Jack finally managed to croak, weakly raising his hands to push the container away.

When he saw Daniel's face again, there was nothing but concern there. No revulsion or accusations.

"You want help getting changed?" Daniel asked. Jack's clothes were drenched in beer. At least it wasn't as bad as real vomit would be.

"Just give me a sec, okay?" Jack replied, shutting his eyes against the glaring overhead kitchen light.

Daniel got up and shut it off.

Then he just sat next to Jack, with his radiating golden glow and his warmth and his sweet musky smell. It was all Jack could do in his weakened state not to turn his head and bite the neck that was just inches away.

"Daniel," he whispered.

"Jack?" Daniel replied.

"You have to go now, Daniel," he said.

And just like with the light, Daniel knew.

He turned his head and they were staring each other in the eye, foreheads practically touching. Jack could see that combination of apprehension and determination that Daniel got whenever he made this offer.

"You need to do this, Jack. I'm right here. I want to do this. You're not going to hurt me."

"You're so warm," Jack whispered. It slipped out by accident. Jack knew his body temperature was much lower than other people's now. Vampire metabolism maintained an internal temperature of about ninety degrees. Daniel would feel so good against his bare skin.

Daniel was turning away again, tipping his head to the side, while leaning in closer with his strong, warm, delicious-smelling body.

With reserves of strength that could only be found in total panic, Jack jumped to his feet. He staggered away from Daniel's pulsing heart and stumbled into the living room.

"Get out!" he growled. "And forget this ever happened. I don't want to ever hear about it again, not from you, not from Fraiser. You got it, Daniel?"

Daniel slowly rose to his feet. His movements seemed stiff. Jack realized he had offended his friend. His friend who had just probably saved his sorry life. But it didn't matter. Daniel had to get out _now_ or Jack was going to do more than one thing they would both regret.

Without a backwards glance, Daniel slowly walked to the front door and let himself out.

 

*[The Wikipedia article on 7-11, with a picture of a Big Gulp,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven#Products_and_services) for my friends not from the US.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vampire cannot live by (chicken) blood alone. Jack becomes a vampire.

_There was blood all around him. On his hands. On his face. On his lips. In his mouth. It was oozing through his hair and slick between his toes. He could feel it in his inner ear and trickling down his neck. It was all for him. It smelled so good – salty and sweet. It was Carter's blood, bright and clear. And Teal'c's blood, sweet and exotic. And Daniel's blood, rich and deep. And he was bathing in it and drinking it and it was wonderful. He was so hungry. So, so hungry._

 _Their empty, drained corpses rotted forgotten in the other room._

He sat up, blinking in the bright darkness, reorienting himself after the nightmare.

He was sleeping like crap. It would be nice if his biological clock would quit flip-flopping. He wasn't holding his breath, though. He might as well get used to the fact that he was now a creature of the night. He rubbed his eyes and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

He shuffled out to the kitchen, switching on lights as he went so that he could pretend he was still human and still needed them. The sudden brightness didn't hurt like it should, his dark-adapted eyes adjusting differently than human eyes, he supposed. The night vision must work differently.

He opened the fridge. Which was filled with quart plastic tubs. He really, really wished he could still have a beer.

Blood it was, then!

As he carried the bowl of pig's blood left over from dinner to the table, he wondered if it was possible to be a hypoglycemic vampire. He was always hungry. He refused to consider that Daniel and Gyan might be right and perhaps a vampire could not live by chicken blood alone.

He skipped the spoon entirely and dipped his fingers into the gelatinous substance. It was disgusting, but it was the middle of the night and who was going to know but him and it just felt right that if he couldn't bite...

Morosely, he sucked his own fingers, cleaning the cold blood away digit by digit. He pretended it tasted like bacon.

* * *

The next morning was a Saturday. The team had four days off before they were due back at the mountain. He fully expected to hear from Daniel, to berate him for his stupidity or find out how he was doing or both. But nothing. He was relieved, and yet hurt. No call all day. Nothing on Sunday, either.

Monday, he moseyed down to Daniel's office.

"Hey, Jack," Daniel said distractedly. Jack watched him blindly reach for his coffee as he flipped back and forth through the tiny well-thumbed paperback in his hands. He was looking for something, a scowl on his face.

Jack settled into Daniel's computer chair to wait him out. Daniel finally threw down the book, muttering in disgust, and whirled around, hopping off the stool headed for the bookshelf right behind Jack. He barely stopped himself from crashing into him.

"Oh. Hey, Jack," he said again, offering a friendly smile. "Can I help you with something?"

"Nope," he said. "I just wanted to drop by and say thanks for Friday night."

Daniel's face went blank.

He blinked a few times, then the blank went away and was replaced by the wrinkle between the eyebrows.

"Friday?" he asked. "I spent all Friday doing department head stuff. Didn't I?" he seemed confused. He reached over Jack to flip through his desk calendar. "Yeah. Archaeologists and linguists all day."

Jack frowned.

"Nooooo," he said. Then he grinned, finally cluing in. "Thanks for 'forgetting.'"

"Forgetting what?" Daniel said. He was doing the furrowed brow thing again. Jack smiled even bigger and got up, slapping him on the shoulder. Which made Daniel scowl.

"Seriously. What?!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "You know. Friday night. Beer everywhere. I know I was a jerk at the time, but thanks for the rescue."

Daniel's face went slack and blank again. Then he kind of shook it off.

"Beer?" he said. He looked like he was in physical pain. "Rescue?" He shook his head.

He stumbled backwards leaning against the lab table.

"Daniel? Are you okay?"

"I don't think so," Daniel said shakily.

* * *

By the time they got to the infirmary, Daniel was almost completely back to normal.

Dr. Fraiser flashed her light in his eyes, frowned a little bit, took his pulse, took some blood.

"Explain to me what happened, exactly," she said, handing the vial off to her nurse.

"Jack started asking me about something that happened on Friday," Daniel said. "I couldn't remember what he was talking about. And the more he tried to explain to me what happened, the worse I felt. I got dizzy and my head started to hurt. But now I'm feeling much better. Maybe I had too much coffee."

Jack shook his head, just enough that the doc would know he didn't agree.

She made a few notes on her chart.

"What were you trying to remember. Can you tell me about it now?"

Daniel's face went completely blank.

"No," he answered. He went pale again and closed his eyes tight.

"Just lie down, buddy," Jack said, catching him as he swayed. Dr. Fraiser helped him get his feet up on the table.

"Nurse," she called. Her nurse rushed back over.

"Keep an eye on Dr. Jackson for me. I need to speak to the Colonel privately. Let me know if there is any worsening of his condition."

"Yes, ma'am," the nurse said. Dr. Fraiser dragged Jack bodily by the arm into her office.

"What happened?" she asked him.

He flopped into a chair.

"I think I accidentally erased his memory," Jack said.

"Go on," the doctor prompted him when he didn't elaborate.

"Okay. Friday night, I did something so stupid, you won't even believe I did it," he confessed. He suspected that only respect for his rank kept Dr. Fraiser from rolling her eyes.

"I drank a beer," he plowed on.

"That couldn’t have been good," she said.

"No. It was just as bad as any of the things I ate under observation. Except I had left the cooler with the blood in it out in the truck. I think I was probably convulsing when Daniel walked in on me. He got some blood into me and when the worst of it was over, I adopted my usual manners."

He smiled with what he hoped was self-deprecating charm.

"I know I'm not the best patient."

Again, the doctor did not roll her eyes.

"Anyway, I told him to get out and forget anything had ever happened. And he did. He just shut up and left. No argument. Nothing. And he didn't call me later to find out if I was okay. I figured he was just pissed at me for being a bastard. But this morning, when I tried to apologize and thank him, he started acting like he did just now."

Dr. Fraiser slowly sank into the chair beside him.

"Well. That's certainly..."

"Yeah," Jack wholeheartedly agreed.

Leaving the doc's office, he knew he couldn't just leave it alone. This was an ability that needed to be tested. He waved to Daniel as he left. He was already chirping away happily to one of the many attentive nurses. Very attentive. Jack grinned to himself and headed for Hammond's office.

As he settled into the chair across from his CO, he captured the general's gaze, and concentrating very hard on making the general do exactly what he suggested, he said, "Sir, I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site."

At first, he thought it hadn't worked. The general's eyes returned to the file he had been studying when Jack interrupted him. But then his hand was reaching for the phone, almost independent of the general's apparent intentions.

"Sergeant," he said, "I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site."

Jack fought the urge to smirk. The general's expression was blank, his posture stiff. Then he blinked in confusion.

"What? Yes, I realize it was last month!" A pause. "No! Of course the Jaffa there will not want green beer."

The general was looking more and more confused.

"I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site," he repeated belligerently, nearly shouting, and slammed down the phone. He looked at Jack like he was surprised he was still in his office.

Jack concentrated hard again.

"Sir, maybe the St. Patrick's Day party thing isn't such a great idea. I think we should cancel it."

He got up and left as General Hammond again reached for the phone. Sauntering through the briefing room over to the stairs, he saw Siler deep in conversation with Teal'c as a technical crew crawled all over the Gateroom. He found a bemused Harriman hanging up the phone. He slouched against the wall next to him.

"What's goin' on?" he asked, nodding out the observation window.

"Just some regular maintenance," the sergeant replied.

Jack walked with him over to his work station.

"Hey," he said. The sergeant looked up at him. "Teal'c's a great guy. He looks like he could use a hug."

Jack thought he was really going to need to get a few prints from the security feed at the end of the day.

It worked great on Ferretti, too, and he learned that he could get someone to do something not only ridiculous or humiliating, but really dangerous.

"I bet you really want to pop Teal'c's naked ass with a towel," he muttered, while Teal'c was still under the spray and couldn't hear them.

Oh, yeah. He was going to be visiting the security office for some pics.

* * *

"Jack," drawled Daniel from the doorway of his office.

Jack looked up in surprise. Nobody ever came to _his_ office.

"Daniel! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Teal'c was telling me about some strange things that happened to him yesterday. While I was in the infirmary. Apparently recovering from your super powers of suggestion."

Jack grinned.

"You wanna see the pictures?" he offered, pulling them out of his desk.

Daniel frowned.

"It's not funny, Jack. What happened to me showed it could be dangerous."

Jack smiled fondly at the picture of Ferretti in a head lock. Then guiltily shoved the photo back into his kneehole drawer.

"Jack!"

He adopted a more serious expression.

"Yes, Daniel. That's why I needed to try it out in a safe environment. To see whether it was something I could control and to learn what it feels like to do it, so I don't do it by accident again, like I did with you."

Daniel sat back in his chair, not looking the slightest bit mollified.

"Not to mention the possible applications in the field," Jack said. "The next time some mostly innocent natives freak out, I can provide another option short of violence. This thing could save our asses one day."

Daniel's eyes narrowed.

"Maybe," he replied reluctantly. "But if I think you're using it on this base again, I'm turning you in to Janet. If you had mentioned this to her, you could have tested 'this thing' in a controlled environment under her supervision."

"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun," Jack smirked.

Daniel sighed and rolled his eyes. He shoved himself out of Jack's guest chair and stomped out of the office.

Jack went back to his pile of bureaucracy, smiling as he remembered the looks of confusion on Siler and Teal'c's faces as Harriman threw his arms around the Jaffa.

"Jack," said Daniel from the doorway. He was standing there thoughtfully this time.

"I wonder if you can make yourself invisible."

"What?" he asked.

"I was reading in one of Gyan's books that vampires can choose not to be seen," Daniel said. "I hesitate to mention this to you, but..."

"That could have real implications in the field," Jack finished for him. "Does it say how it's done?"

"No," Daniel said, "But I would guess it could be an extension of this whole mind control thing."

"To the nurse's locker room!" Jack said gleefully.

"You better hope it works," Daniel muttered darkly, trailing along behind him. "If Janet finds out about it, you're a dead man."

"I'm already dead!" Jack replied. "It's you who should be worried. I want to know if I can make us _both_ invisible."

As they walked down the hall, Jack concentrated on the idea that nobody could see him or Daniel. They moved along not calling attention to themselves. Nobody greeted Daniel. Nobody saluted Jack. Eyes seemed to skitter across Jack's face as people passed them by. Daniel kept looking back at him, then at the people in the hallway.

"Are you doing it?" he asked softly.

Two airmen walking by gave Daniel twin startled looks. One of them crashed into Jack, then nearly fell over himself snapping to attention.

"As you were," Jack said to both of them, breezing by and taking Daniel by the elbow. He started trying to think them invisible again, but all eyes in the corridor were fixed on them. Their invisibility didn't kick back in until they rounded the corner.

It was the crowded, bustling hall immediately outside the mess. Daniel stopped in front of the door. Daniel and Jack were soon dodging oblivious SGC staff.

"O'Neill. DanielJackson. Why are you obstructing the entry way?"

Jack turned to the Jaffa in surprise.

"Whoa," said Carter, clearly startled herself. She had been about to walk headlong into Daniel's back. "Wow. I didn't see you there."

Teal'c looked puzzled.

"We were just testing something out," Jack said, pushing Daniel through into the mess.

"Testing what?" she asked.

"Jack can make people not see us!" Daniel whispered excitedly. Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

"But it didn't work on Teal'c," Jack muttered. It was a big disappointment. "Just our luck. Probably all Jaffa are immune."

He turned to Teal'c and focused all his attention on the big man.

"You are really hungry for blue jello. You should eat Carter's."

"Hey!" she objected. Teal'c frowned disapprovingly.

"O'Neill. If I desire blue jello, I will simply take a portion for myself from the desert shelf. I will certainly not take it from MajorCarter's tray."

"Damn," Jack muttered. Daniel snickered behind his hand.

* * *

And so life went on. There were missions, and it all was remarkably unremarkable. He put on sunscreen. He started wearing a bandana under his cap to cover the back of his neck. He still wore the goggles. He tried to steer Hammond away from assigning SG-1 the really hot planets.

If the natives noticed he was a bit longer in the tooth than he once was (and who wasn't?), well, they didn't say. Teal'c was great that way, what with the Apophis tat right out there. The locals usually focused on that, and the fact that Jack was a little pale just didn't faze them at all.

Dr. Fraiser, though, was a whole different bucket of worms.

"You're starving," she said bluntly.

"I'm the undead. How can you be so sure?" Jack asked, though he suspected she was right. He was always hungry, and he was pretty sure that he wasn't really supposed to have this grey tinge to his skin and sort of blue lips.

"I'm declaring you unfit for duty until you agree to eat properly," she said, adopting a particularly Napoleonic pose.

"No."

"Yes! The donors don't know they're donating to you, and you don't get to know who they are. Gyan said you only need about four ounces of blood a day to be healthy. So four ounces is what you are going to have."

Jack opened his mouth to argue the point _yet again_.

"Just stop before you start," she said. "This isn't some sort of issue of dietary preference anymore. It has become a medical condition. You. Are. Killing. Yourself. There's no reason for it. If you lost a lot of blood from a gunshot wound, you'd _expect_ a transfusion. You need the blood just as much now."

She swirled out of the iso room she always used these days to maintain his privacy.

Jack lay back on the table and waited.

She came back in with a coffee mug.

"That's ten ounces," Jack objected.

"Yeah, well, you get some extra until I'm sure you're on the road to recovery," she said. She handed him the mug, which was warm.

Then she stood there, waiting.

"You don't have something better to do?"

"What? I should leave so you can dump it in the potted plant and pretend you drank it like a good boy? No way. And don't waste it. That's blood I could have used for other lifesaving purposes, so treat it with the respect it deserves.

"...like a good boy, Colonel," Jack muttered, scowling at her, but he took a tentative sip. She had gauged the temperature perfectly. His body temperature was a steady 91 degrees – endothermic, but a lot cooler than normal human temperatures. He liked everything a lot cooler these days.

It tasted good. He took another sip. It tasted better than good. Better than imaginary bacon blood. Before he knew it, he had finished it in almost one long drink.

When he lowered the mug, Fraiser looked a little rattled, though she covered it well. Jack winced. If he could freak out Fraiser, he could only imagine what he must look like. He licked a little residue of blood from his lip.

The doc shook it off and grinned at him.

"There. Report back here at 0800 tomorrow for another mug. And stay on base tonight. I want you nearby if anything unexpected happens."

 _Yay._ His first feeding on human blood. _'Unexpected,' the doc is thinking._

"Wait," he said suddenly. Dr. Fraiser obligingly turned back.

"Promise me you won't let SG-1 volunteer to... You know. Donate."

The doctor raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, tell me I did _not_ just drink Carter's blood or something!" he growled.

Dr. Fraiser shook her head.

"No."

"Well, just be sure I don't... It would be just..." he made a face.

Her quizzical look changed to understanding.

"I have nightmares about it," he blurted before he knew what he was saying.

She smiled gently.

"Of course, Colonel. I assure you that I'll respect your wishes on this point."

He was relieved when she left. He hopped down off the exam table feeling better than he had in weeks and trooped off to quarters feeling happy, healthy, and completely disgusted by turns.

Ah. The life of the undead.

* * *

He began reporting to the infirmary for his "coffee" with the doc every morning. While the blue lips went away and the weight loss stopped, the grey tinge only got worse, and he couldn't manage any weight gain.

Every morning he left her office craving more. Hungry.

So he shouldn't have been surprised the day that he arrived to find Gyan pacing Fraiser's cramped office.

"Well, this is unpleasant," Jack said.

The vampire was giving him the once-over. He turned to Fraiser.

"He will not do what he must do," said Gyan. He sat in the chair across from Fraiser, giving Jack the hairy eyeball the whole time.

"You can keep him alive with blood from a cup for a short time, but if he does not have living blood he will eventually shrivel, dry up, and blow away."

Gyan glared at him.

"Of course, it is a horrible, lingering way to die. Many of the ones who will not take living blood manage to die peacefully, harming no one. But many others, at the end, become as they were at the beginning – feral and mad."

Gyan pointed an accusatory finger at Jack.

"Do you want to be like your SG-11, ripping out the throats of your friends and loved ones, not caring whom you kill or infect in your final desperate hunger?! If you were among your own kind, we would not permit this!" Gyan turned back to Dr. Fraiser.

"It is against our laws for vampires to starve themselves while living among humans. You should send him through the Stargate to a place where he can hurt no one. That is what we would do."

Jack found himself with his arm around Gyan's throat, the vampire's neck bent back at an impossible angle, almost before he realized what he had done. The anger hot and overwhelming. The only reason Gyan wasn't dead was probably Jack's weakened state. The vampire's iron grip on his forearm tightened as Gyan tried to pry Jack's arm away.

"Colonel!" Dr. Fraiser shouted. Jack released him and leaped away again, putting distance between himself and Gyan, ready in case the vampire wanted to make a fight of it.

It was pretty cool, actually. He hadn't had a good chance to try out his new skills in a real fight. Nice to get an idea of what he could do.

"You see what I mean, doctor?" Gyan said, his voice hoarse. He rubbed at his throat. "He will only become more dangerous if he continues to refuse blood."

Dr. Fraiser's eyes flitted back and forth between the two vampires.

"I'll take it under advisement," she said. The look she gave Jack made him feel vaguely guilty.

* * *

The next morning, Dr. Fraiser did not greet him with a cup of blood.

He eyed her warily.

"Colonel, the time has come," she said calmly.

"0800 hours?" Jack asked, with the pretense of confusion. Though he knew exactly what she as saying. And he was so hungry.

"This way, Colonel," the doctor said, taking his elbow and steering him away from the infirmary down the hall toward the isolation rooms.

When he saw them he twitched his arm out of her grip. Carter was sitting on the exam table.

"I said not them," he growled.

He wasn't drinking the blood of SG-1.

He knew things about people after he drank their blood. It didn't matter that the doc didn't tell him who the "donors" were. He would go out into the facility and one of them would walk by and he would _know_ how they tasted. Know the texture of their blood, the scent of their lifeforce, the flavor of their souls.

He did not want to know these things about SG-1. He already knew their auras, their moods, the beating of their hearts in ways that he should not.

"Well, who then, Jack?" Daniel demanded. "You won't do this with people you don't know very well. You can't ask subordinates. You can't ask your peers. You won't ask your friends. So it's us or nobody."

"And 'nobody' is no longer an option, O'Neill," rumbled Teal'c.

He was so hungry.

"Sir, if you won't attempt to eat, this is going to progress from a medical situation to a security issue. Your behavior indicates that Gyan was correct..."

Her voice faded to static as Jack gave in. They wanted him to drink. They were determined that he would have their blood before he left this room. He was hungry. They were so tempting. He found himself standing between Carter's knees, leaning in towards the pulsing vein on her throat. He could sense every droplet of blood in her body, feel it moving. He could feel her heart rate increasing in fear and anticipation as she tipped her head to give her neck better exposure.

He breathed across her skin, his cooler breath making her shiver and her scent strengthened. He wanted her. Her blood. Her skin. Her short soft hair. Her cunt.

With a snarl he jerked away from her. Carter's eyes were glazed and fixed on him. He knew she was getting wet just as well as he knew he was getting hard.

"No!" he shouted. It shook Carter out of her trance.

"Did you see her? Did you see how she looked? I'm not doing that to anyone. I hadn't even touched her!"

He was panting. They were watching him warily.

"I'll drink blood from the cup the usual way, but I am _not_ biting anyone," he said to Fraiser, trying to be calmer. "Could we drink it in here, please? I'd prefer as few people as possible saw me this way."

"Of course," Fraiser said. "But Colonel..."

"We can talk about it later, doctor," he said firmly.

Teal'c arched an eyebrow, then offered Carter a hand down from the table. She refused to take it, though she stumbled a step before she got her balance.

She walked up to him, invading his personal space.

"I know why you stopped," she said.

"Dismissed, Major," he replied curtly.

Which earned him Daniel's disapproving frown as well as Teal'c's evil eye. Dr. Fraiser reappeared with his blood.

Carter turned to Dr. Fraiser.

"It's the sexual component," she said simply.

"Well, we knew there would be..." Daniel began. Then stopped and stared at Jack.

"Have you been totally ignoring _everything_ I've been telling you the last month?"

"Out. All of you. Now." Fraiser said.

* * *

Daniel pushed past him into the house, skipping the pleasantries.

"So clearly there's more to feeding than just eating," Daniel began immediately.

Jack shut his eyes and counted to ten.

"Daniel," he said. "We are not discussing this _again_. I am not biting anybody, end of story."

"Gyan said that most vampires die of starvation." Jack took a deep, steadying breath. Daniel's favorite mantra. "There's obviously some component of feeding directly on a person that you need to survive." Daniel met Jack's steely stare. His determination shaded over to anger.

"I'm not going to let you die just because you're a stubborn bastard," Daniel growled. He turned and stalked back to Jack's bedroom. Jack found him standing by the dresser.

"I don't think you need that much blood," Daniel said softly. "Gyan's texts say that vampires live for years on the blood of a single willing companion. One person couldn't do that if you needed much."

He had picked up Jack's utility knife from the dresser. He drew the sharp blade over the soft skin of his inner arm, flinching just a little, breath coming in a sigh.

The long, thin scrape welled blood. The presence of it filled Jack's senses completely. Daniel's voice, continuing on about... something... sounded far away, drowned in the sound of Daniel's blood rushing through his veins, smothered by the heat and smell of the richredthickhot...

Daniel extended his bleeding arm, offering it to Jack to taste. To drink. To feed.

Jack felt his body reacting. His pupils were dilating and slitting, and he knew from previous experience that they were fading to a pale blue white. He felt his lips pulling back from his fangs.

"Daniel," he whispered. "You need to leave. Right now."

"It's okay, Jack. You're not hungry for a lot of blood. All you need is to experience living blood from living flesh. You don't need to hurt me."

"Daniel," he breathed, but he couldn't hold back, with Daniel standing so close, offering him what he wanted. What he _needed_.

He reached out and took Daniel's wrist in an iron grip, but stopped himself from yanking him forward. He hardly needed to, anyway. Daniel was standing right there, and let Jack raise his arm easily.

Jack lowered his head had ran his tongue down the long scratch.

Daniel's blood was rich and fragrant. Like coffee and chocolate and wine, but also like hummus and pad thai and mint chutney. There was nothing in Jack's experience to compare it to. None of the human blood Jack had consumed from cups in Fraiser's infirmary was anything like the food he was taking from Daniel's warm, silken skin.

When the first blood was gone, Jack worked his way back down the cut with this tongue, worrying it and encouraging the blood to flow. He found that just the edge of his tooth was enough to bring the blood welling back to the surface. Precious, tiny droplets. Just a taste. Tiny lapping licks.

As he drank, he felt himself changing. He could _feel_ the way drinking was completing him. It wasn't making him well. It wasn't healing him. It was allowing him to grow and expand – to fill the empty places in this strangely different body. And it was awakening other needs, as well. Just as it had in the infirmary when he had refused to drink Carter's blood. Drinking Daniel's body, Jack knew what Gyan hadn't told them. Daniel was right. He didn't just need to drink. He needed... something else. Energy maybe. Energy from Daniel's blood. Energy from Daniel's body. His life force. His soul.

It was only then that Jack processed Daniel's hitching breathing. The way he was swaying on his feet. He looked up, too stimulated in all his senses to be properly concerned, but knowing intellectually that Daniel might be in danger.

Daniel's eyes were glazed, and in every way he looked completely, happily drunk.

"Vampire glamour," Daniel murmured, smiling seductively. "God, you look hot." Daniel laughed. "Vampires are almost always an allegory for hypersexuality. I think the missing component from your feeding could be sex. Oh. Hmmmm... Maybe I didn't quite think this through." Daniel's smile didn't fade, and he didn't sound the slightest bit worried.

Jack caught Daniel behind his neck and dragged him forward. Kissing him, awkward with his new teeth, Jack nicked him. Daniel moaned. Jack drank from his bloody lip, pushing the blood back into Daniel's mouth, then chasing it, drawing it back to himself again, over and over until Daniel was a lax, panting weight in his arms.

He carried him and deposited him on the bed. Rutting. That was what his body was demanding. And Daniel was looking up at him in blissful expectation. Trusting. Yearning. Opening himself up to give more.

"Daniel?" Jack choked out.

Daniel smiled lazily in response. He reached down to fumble at his belt and fly.

 _Nonono_ , that wasn't right. Daniel was his friend, not his lover. Daniel wasn't gay. Daniel was just here trying to help him out. He was sure Daniel never planned to screw him as part of the deal. No.

He took Daniel's hands in a strong, firm grip.

"No," he said softly. "Daniel, you don't want to do this." He trembled as he forced himself to pull Daniel upright onto his feet and carefully guide him to the door.

"I don't?" Daniel asked, sounding genuinely confused and disappointed. "I do," he said, putting his arms around Jack's neck and kissing him again.

"We're not doing this," Jack said sharply. "I'm calling you a cab."

The half hour spent waiting for the cab was possibly the longest of his life. It made him think about black holes and time dilation. But the cab finally arrived and he shoved Daniel in, paid the driver three times as much as it should take to get Daniel home. Then he followed them in his truck just to be sure.

* * *

"Wow. You look a lot better this morning!" Fraiser exclaimed. "What did you do? On the table, right now."

Jack sighed. Trust the doc that if he looked _better_ she would just use it as an excuse to prod him.

"Nothing," he lied. "Just must have finally had enough of the real thing to turn the corner."

He did look better. The grey pallor was gone. But now he was all jittery and restless. He had gone from slightly depressed and listless to completely overcharged and jumpy. The lights were too bright, now. The auras of the humans on the base were too luminescent. Smells were too strong, sounds were too loud.

Whatever he had done with Daniel hadn't really fixed him.

Later, when he tracked Daniel down in his lab, he knew he couldn't do it again. Jack felt wired, but Daniel looked like he had the flu. Dark circles under his eyes and skin too pale.

"Thanks," Jack said simply from the doorway.

"Don't mention it," Daniel said listlessly. "How did I get home last night? I hardly remember anything after I got to your place. I cut myself right? And obviously you drank..."

"Yeah," Jack said. "How are you feeling? You look like crap."

"Thanks," Daniel said with a weak attempt at a smile. "I'm just tired and headachy. Though interestingly..." He held out his arm, which was almost fully healed, with only the palest white trace to show that he had been bleeding last night.

"Well, we're not doing that again," Jack said gruffly.

"Teal'c, Sam and I thought we could take rotating shifts," Daniel protested.

"No way," Jack said. "I don’t care if you are perfect tomorrow. The condition you are in now... Not acceptable."

He knew he meant it when Daniel couldn’t even muster the strength to argue about it.

* * *

It took about two days for his jitters to wear off, and about a week for Daniel to recover from his reaction.

Unfortunately, it only took about a week for Jack's former symptoms to come back.

Before Dr. Fraiser could start in on him again, he went to Teal'c.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said, opening the door to his quarters. With a genteel inclination of his head he stepped back, welcoming Jack into his quarters.

"I need your help, Teal'c," he said quietly. Teal'c merely nodded and went to sit on the reed mat. He took out his own knife and without any discussion, drew it across his thick forearm.

His blood smelled different from Daniel's. Sweeter. Lighter.

As Jack knelt in front of his friend on the mat, he felt another presence. Covered by Teal'c's lifeforce, or surrounded by it, or subsumed in it, he wasn't sure how to describe it, but he felt the symbiote, living inside Teal'c. It was hidden from his view, obviously. He wondered if it had an aura, and if it would be the color of vomit.

He caught Teal'c's arm gently in this two hands, lifting the blood to his mouth. Steadying himself. Teal'c let out a gusty sigh as Jack caressed him with lips and teeth.

Teal'c's blood tasted like cloves on his tongue.

And it burned like fire.

Jack screamed, and bit down in pain. Then his world went black.

* * *

He woke in a warm, soft bed. Everything felt dull. His sense of smell was numb, his hearing muffled. When he opened his eyes, everything was dim. For one heart-stopping moment he thought maybe Teal'c's blood had been the answer all along. Maybe he was normal again. Then the hunger cramped his gut. No such luck, then.

He was surprised to find that he was not in the infirmary, but rather in one of the VIP suites. He was so hungry. He should be in medical restraints. Or a cell. He could feel the need to feed overwhelming him. If he weren't so weak, he knew he would be hunting now. He needed blood. He wanted it. He shut his eyes tight and whined.

"Hey," Daniel said gently.

Jack's eyes snapped open and using an impossible amount of energy he managed to tip his head to one side to see his friend, sitting next to him in the bed, propped up on pillows against the headboard. The shock of seeing him momentarily broke through Jack's misery.

"Naked," he managed to croak. Daniel smiled down at him.

"You're doing much better than the last time you woke up," he said, sounding pleased. He got out of bed and padded away, probably toward the suite's living area.

"I'll be right back," he said reassuringly.

Which wasn't _that_ reassuring to Jack, since before he got out of Jack's line of sight, Jack had plenty of time to confirm that Daniel wasn't just sitting in bed without his shirt on.

Daniel did come right back. He had been gone about a minute when the microwave beeped, and Daniel reappeared to sit by him on the edge of the bed. He wrestled Jack until he was leaning limply against Daniel's side, then Daniel held the microwave-warmed cup to Jack's lips.

It was just chicken blood, Jack's favorite, though how Daniel could have known that he couldn’t imagine. Probably just a coincidence. Or maybe Daniel's sense of humor. Everybody knows you eat chicken soup when you're sick. The chicken blood wasn't enough, but it did make Jack feel better. He felt stronger and more in-control. His senses woke – only to focus on Daniel with a frightening intensity.

Funny how it was just at that moment that he realized that Daniel wasn't the only naked person in the room.

"Daniel, we can't," he ground out through clenched teeth. "I appreciate the gesture, but we can't."

It was a difficult conversation to have while Daniel was settling him gently back into the pillows. Once Jack was resting to his satisfaction, Daniel slid in under the covers, too. Right on top of Jack. His skin felt hot against Jack's body. His blood was flowing through his veins right against Jack's skin. As he propped his arms on either side of Jack's head, Jack felt the weight of his body everywhere. He was drowning in Daniel's scent. He _wanted_ Daniel's blood. So much.

He stared up into serious blue eyes.

"Yes, we can," he said. "Janet and I made them take all the equipment out. No one can see. No one will know."

"I'm not doing it again," Jack said. "It made you sick."

"Only because we didn't finish," Daniel said, with a sneaky, seductive smile and a small tilt of his hips.

"No," Jack said firmly. "It's not that I don't appreciate the offer, Daniel, but if I'm going to have sex to save my life, I'll do it with a woman, thanks."

In response, Daniel lowered his lips to Jack's and kissed him. A sweet pressure of lips with a gentle brush of tongue. Before Jack could pull himself together, Daniel's tongue was peacefully exploring Jack's feeding teeth and soft palate. By the time Daniel pulled away, tongue flickering out to taste his own wet lips, Jack had forgotten everything by his desire to have Daniel.

Daniel resumed his attempts to persuade Jack, his voice a rich purr, arousal enriching his scent. His cock was half-hard against Jack's belly.

"You shouldn't have tried to drink Teal'c's blood," Daniel said.

"Ya think?" Jack muttered, but his heart wasn't in it, as his own dick was straining upwards, brushing tantalizingly against the sheets.

"You almost bit Teal'c's arm off. He forgives you, by the way."

"That's good," Jack said, hardly hearing anything Daniel was saying.

"Gyan said you essentially swallowed lye when you tried to drink Jaffa blood. He told us you were going to die." The news was delivered in a husky, seductive whisper against Jack's ear.

Gyan's name killed Jack's mood as effectively as a bucket of ice cold water. Too bad his erection didn't get the memo.

"You are not whoring yourself out to me just because Gyan thinks a suck and fuck, vampire style, is just what the doctor ordered," Jack growled. He pushed and actually found the strength to shove Daniel off of him.

"You're right," Daniel said. "I'm not. I'm doing this because I want to."

"No you don't. You're a great guy, Danny, but I know you don't _do_ guys."

Daniel just grinned back at him.

"When I realized what we did wrong the last time, I went to the toy shop downtown and got myself a nice, lime green dildo and plenty of lube."

Jack didn't know whether to be shocked, horrified, or just intrigued when Daniel rolled over to the bedside table, pulled out his new toy and flung it on the bed. Jack could see the drawer was full of bottles and tubes, too.

"I've been practicing in my spare time, Jack," he purred. "Do you want to watch?"

Jack intercepted Daniel's hand as he reached for a bottle. He held him tightly by the wrist, and brought their faces close together.

"Your crazy ideas about research don't change the fact that I'm not going to fuck Gyan's whore," Jack snarled.

Daniel brought his other hand up to Jack's face, letting his fingers linger over Jack's lips where he could feel his larger teeth.

"No," Daniel said, "You're making love to your beloved." His smile was sweet. But the look in his eyes was less confident now. "Let me do this for you, Jack. You don't have the time to go out, pick up some stranger, take her for drinks, and talk her into letting you suck her blood. I'm here, I want to do this. _You_ want to do this. With _me_." His voice trailed away to a whisper.

Jack could already feel the hunger, briefly suppressed by his snack of animal blood, coming back strong. His sight was already fading again. He felt weak and shaky, just from the exertion of this argument with Daniel. He found that Daniel's arms were around him again, easing him down onto his back.

Daniel reached over into the drawer and brought out a simple tube of KY. And a knife.

Jack felt like he should make a joke about his kinky sex life, but his brain was having trouble coping with the vision of naked Daniel, perched on his thighs, his very erect penis now dueling with Jack's, slicking up his hand and reaching for Jack's cock.

He groaned as Daniel took a tentative grip.

Daniel slathered lube all over him.

Then he stopped.

"Daniel," he started to protest, only to realize that Daniel had only stopped to reposition himself so that now, the head of Jack's dick was pressing... pressing...

He was barely breathing as Daniel impaled himself. He stared up in amazement at Daniel's face, eyebrows crowding together in concentration, attention fully-focused internally. When he touched bottom, he seemed to come back to himself and realized Jack was watching him. He smiled brilliantly, looking ridiculously pleased with himself. He was breathing harder. Jack still was hardly breathing at all.

He had never imagined having sex with Daniel. Not explicitly. He had never let himself. Maybe he had jerked off thinking about Daniel washing his hair in the shower. Maybe. But never anything like this.

Then Daniel moved up, then resettled. Jack's vision hazed to red around the edges. Daniel grunted to himself, and tried it again. It was so good that Jack had actually forgotten the real purpose of this whole process until Daniel sat still again and reached for the knife.

"You don't need that," Jack said. "Can you put it back on the table?"

Daniel paused, looking at him long and hard. Then slowly leaned away to lay the knife back down.

Jack reached for him and Daniel came forward to meet him. Jack let his teeth graze over the tender skin of Daniel's neck, burying his nose in Daniel's soft hair, breathing him in as he touched his tongue to the first welling droplet of blood from the tiny nick.

Daniel whimpered as Jack moaned. Daniel's blood was so rich, so satisfying. The horrible hunger was driven back. Jack barely had the presence of mind to be careful with his teeth, just sipping Daniel's blood, not taking it all.

It was only after several minutes of feeding that he realized how their bodies were rocking together. They were forming a feedback loop of energy like an electric current, flowing through them both, making them both stronger, making them vibrate and hum and groan together. Jack rolled them over, pinning Daniel's relaxed, pleasured body beneath him, nipping his neck again and drinking more even as he delved more deeply into Daniel's body, Daniel's legs wrapping around him, pulling him in, holding him.

Daniel came first, climaxing with a moan that would have been a full-throated scream if Jack hadn't felt it coming and covered Daniel's mouth with his own. Daniel's tongue licked at Jack's bloodied lips and teeth. Then Jack's world whited out in the most intense orgasm he had ever experienced. It shook his entire body. He knew he was collapsing onto Daniel, and rolled them both over so they lay facing each other. Daniel was out cold. Jack wrapped him up in arms and legs and fell asleep with their foreheads pressed together.

* * *

He woke up with Daniel still in his arms. His first realization was that he wasn't hungry in the slightest. He wasn't jittery and overcharged, either. He felt content, satiated, calm and relaxed in a way that he wasn't sure he had _ever_ felt.

His second realization, was that he couldn't let this happen again. Jack couldn't let Daniel sign on as Jack's dinner and dessert just because he was a good friend and wanted to help out.

Of course, thanks to Gyan, Daniel had Jack's number with this "beloved" crap. It didn't really change anything, though. Jack could just deny it and tell Daniel thanks, but no thanks.

Then Daniel opened his eyes, and for one heartbeat, Jack thought, screw that, he's mine. But just one heartbeat.

"Hey," Daniel said blurrily. "How are you feeling?"

"Great," Jack replied. "You were right. Gyan was right. Everybody was right. I'll seriously get to work tracking down somebody to do this with on a regular basis. Thanks, though. For helping."

Daniel's posture didn't change. His expression remained calm and open. But Jack could feel the fight coming in the increase in Daniel's blood pressure. The quickening of his pulse.

"There's no need for you to go looking for someone else, Jack."

"Of course there is, Daniel," Jack said matter-of-factly. "We can't do this all the time. I don't need to insult you by reminding you that I function as your CO in the field. Or that you're straight. Or that sodomy could land me in front of a court martial. Yadda yadda. Trust me, it won't be hard to find someone who can do this for me. You don’t need to be the one."

Daniel considered this, there in their nest, their legs still tangled together, wallowing in the damp, protein-laden, sweaty sheets. Jack was amazed at how Daniel's anger and wounded pride made absolutely no appearance on his face.

"I think you're making a mistake," Daniel said.

"I know you do. But I don't," Jack replied. "Now shut up and go back to sleep."

He stole another four hours in Daniel's arms before they rolled out to shower in the private suite bathroom and report the success of the feeding to the doc.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vampire cannot live by (chicken) blood alone. Jack becomes a vampire.

[Chapter 3](http://cocoa-smut.livejournal.com/22608.html) is located at CJ's journal. Hopefully, the Russian government has found something better to do with it's time and assets by this point than to DDOS LiveJournal. What a bunch of jackasses.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vampire cannot live by (chicken) blood alone. Jack becomes a vampire.

Which was, of course, when SG-11 came back from PX7-983, known to the natives as Zella (but better known in Jack's brain as the blue dirt planet, because you know, all the dirt. Blue.), to say that the deal was final, but the Zellans (who were also kind of bluish, but otherwise were mostly human) would only sign with SG-1 on the other side of the table.

SG-1 had made first contact with Zella over a year ago. It was in many ways the most Earth-like planet they had ever discovered, both densely populated and heavily industrialized. The level of technology in most respects was very similar to Earth's as well, though in some areas they could offer huge advances, and in other areas, they lagged surprisingly far behind. The opportunities for trade in products and innovation were ideal and relatively equal for both sides.

"What have you people been doing out there, Edwards! The blue guys _loved_ me!"

Colonel Edwards snorted.

"They love us, too, Jack. They just think their TV-viewing public will love you _more_."

Carter rolled her eyes, and Teal'c frowned disapprovingly.

"Colonel Edwards, please do not encourage Colonel O'Neill's delusions of grandeur."

Jack smiled demurrely.

Of course, one big difference between Earth and Zella was that on Zella, the Stargate had recently become known to the public. SG-1 had been big news when they arrived. They spent a couple of days of that mission being interviewed by the press and making the rounds of the Zellans' version of talk shows. It was weird.

"For the most part, the Zellans are pretty happy to meet us aliens. But there are still plenty of folks there who would rather shove us back through the gate and bury it behind us. It's not my fault their Minister of the Stargate wants Jack's ugly mug on the evening news, instead of my pretty face," Edwards groused. "Didn't I tell you? They have you guys on kids' lunchboxes there now!"

"Ah. True celebrity," said Jack with a smug grin.

"Well, I don't see any harm in SG-1 representing Earth when the Ambassador signs the treaty, and neither does the President. You have an assignment, Colonel O'Neill," General Hammond said, nodding to Jack. "My apologies to you and your team, Colonel Edwards, you've done a remarkable job."

Edwards shrugged.

"It just means I get to leave my Class A's in the closet, sir," he replied amiably.

"Class A's? You're kidding me," Jack complained. Carter scowled, too.

* * *

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Jack was hesitant to go back to the Crypt too soon, for fear that if she saw him again right away the block would break down and she would recognized him.

There wasn't exactly a huge Goth scene in the Springs. Plus he was uncomfortable picking up a one-night stand even if he could erase her memory completely. It seemed too much like making a victim where there should have be a partnership.

But it had been four days, and if he didn't eat soon, he was going to start feeling the effects.

The negotiations had been going smoothly and SG-11 had been completely accepted. Jack honestly couldn't understand what made SG-1 so indispensible, but he had no intention of begging off from such an important alliance just because he felt a little peckish.

He stepped through the gate, thinking that when he got back to Earth in a few days he'd go back to the Crypt. He'd look for a potential new long-term partner. Or maybe he would reconsider his strategy and start exploiting the club for short-term relationships. He ignored the obnoxious voice in his head that sneered "Dinner."

The leader of the meet and greet party, his old buddy Mal'esh, made him right away.

"You are vampyr? I did not realize," said Mal'esh, looking slightly alarmed.

 _Crap,_ thought Jack. He eyed the short distance back to the gate as Daniel fell back on their flank, anticipating the order to dial it up. Teal'c inclined his staff weapon just a little as Carter tightened up on her P-90.

"That's me," Jack replied with attempted nonchalance. "Not many people pick up on it."

Mal'esh nodded. There was whispering among the ministry staff, who were now watching their visitors with new suspicion, as well as apparent annoyance.

"We know of vampyr, though they are rare among us. It was an oversight that we did not realize your condition before. Which is your Companion?" Mal'esh asked with deceptive mildness.

Jack could practically feel Daniel's eyes on him, waiting for Jack's reply.

"My Companion isn't here," Jack said, now anticipating answering _lots_ of questions from Carter, Teal'c, and probably Dr. Fraiser, too. _Thanks, big guy_ , Jack thought resignedly. _Way to blow my cover._

"She doesn't do wormhole travel," he explained.

Mal'esh's eyes widened in surprise.

"You are travelling without your Companion?! That is not permitted here. You must leave immediately."

Daniel stepped forward.

"When Jack is travelling, I perform the duties of the Companion," he said smoothly. He directed a flickering, nervous smile at Jack.

Jack glared at him, but the meeting was too important to blow it on this point. If nothing else, Carter had been busting at the seams for weeks waiting for the opportunity to work with their physicists and engineers.

Mal'esh looked immediately mollified.

"You could have said that at the beginning!" he said, with a relieved smile. He turned to Carter. "As long as the vampyr is well fed and controlled, we can proceed as planned."

Just as Jack was going to complain about being referred to as "the vampyr," _and_ the fact that Mal'esh was now addressing Carter, rather than himself, Daniel spoke up again.

"Are there any other rules that we should know about how Colonel O'Neill should conduct himself while we're here?" Daniel said. "I would hate to trespass on any laws or customs through ignorance and endanger the relationship between our worlds."

Mal'esh shook his head.

"No. As long as the vampyr has a Companion and is healthy, we treat him as if he were a normal person."

Which turned out to be not entirely true. When they were escorted to their quarters after dinner and speeches, the suite assigned to Jack and Daniel had no windows, and the door was firmly locked behind them.

Daniel stared contemplatively at the door, until Jack sighed in exasperation and began reviewing the bedroom for possible threats and surveillance.

One bed.

"Of course," he muttered under his breath.

When he finished his circuit of the room, he turned back to his "Companion" to find Daniel no longer contemplating the door, but resolutely staring at Jack.

"Regretting this yet?" Jack asked neutrally. He was already feeling fangy. He was hungry and used to feeding on live blood now. Daniel would be a delicious treat, he knew. He hated the universe for setting him up like this. Daniel, almost literally, on a plate, and still not his to have.

Daniel simply shook his head.

"Not at all," he replied, crossing the room towards Jack confidently. There was lust in his eyes and in his musk and great, now Daniel had the stupid vampire kink, too. Jack scowled.

Not that Daniel was deterred. He slipped his hands under Jack's jacket, warm palms moving firmly up Jack's back towards his shoulder blades, pulling their bodies close together. The heat of Daniel against him made Jack shut his eyes against the pure pleasure of it. He felt his cheeks heating and his dick hardening.

When he looked at Daniel again, they were practically nose to nose.

Jack expected Daniel to talk. To try to persuade him. Instead, the archaeologist just kissed him, his eyes drifting shut and his lips soft and gentle.

Jack was so surprised he just stared at Daniel's sweet, relaxed face. Daniel's arms around him tightened. When the tip of Daniel's tongue passed moistly over Jack's lips, Jack almost reflexively responded in kind, the heat of Daniel's tongue against his own a new jolt of pleasure.

Jack had expected Daniel to be all business, the way he was after Jack drank Teal'c's blood. Or for that matter, the way Jack had been at every human feeding since he gave in.

He didn't expect Daniel to gently push Jack's jacket away, then raise his hand to run his fingers through Jack's hair. He didn't expect the hum of satisfaction.

"Silk," whispered Daniel against the corner of Jack's mouth as he broke the kiss, letting his lips graze over Jack's jaw back towards his ear.

Daniel tugged him, walking backwards towards the bed, pulling Jack along with him. Jack turned his head and caught Daniel's lips again as they went down together onto the soft bedcovers.

Jack could feel the blood pulsing through Daniel's lips as they caressed Jack's neck in an ersatz bite. He worried his teeth there, and Jack arched his head back, wantonly inviting Daniel to mark him. Blood and heat so close, Jack felt intoxicated. He pushed back against his craving to feed, reveling in the sensations, in the leisurely enjoyment of being close to someone.

Jack knew he should stop this. He might have little choice other than to feed on Daniel under duress, but Daniel's exploratory nips at Jack's collarbone, his tongue licking over Jack's pecs, Jack's gasps as Daniel paused to try suckling at a nipple, none of this had anything to do with feeding.

Jack had to stop this. He carefully but forcefully pushed Daniel away. Daniel sat up, an arm's length away now, but he just shook his head and smiled, damp and flushed and rumpled, and reached down to work Jack's belt and fly. It had to be done sooner or later so Jack let him. Daniel pulled at his waistband and Jack lifted his hips. He tried not to feel embarrassed as his cock sprang free and erect under Daniel's curious eye.

Jack was about to sit, get Daniel out of his clothes, when Daniel, with no warning, went down on him.

Jack gave a squawk of disbelief that turned into something more like a groan of surrender, as his hips thrust up. Daniel laid his hand flat on Jack's belly, helping Jack to remember to be still as he licked and sucked experimentally.

He didn't realize he had called Daniel's name until Daniel stopped.

"Yes, Jack?" he said, licking his lips smugly.

Jack growled and tackled him. It was Daniel's turn to yelp in surprised laughter as Jack practically ripped off his pants. Daniel helped by squirming out of them, but then he was too far away, all the way on the other side of the bed. Jack prowled after him, intent on removing the smirk from Daniel's face.

He caught him behind the knees as he crawled, lifting his legs easily, slumping down until his nose was pressed into Daniel's crotch and his beautiful, tempting erection. He ran a finger over it. There were veins in the penis. Pints, quarts, gallons of blood passing through Daniel's groin. Jack shook the thought away, listening to Daniel's soft moan at the touch.

Breathing deeply, inhaling Daniel's strong, heady scent, Jack couldn't stop the surreal feeling of unreality.

"Where would you like me to take the blood, Daniel?" His voice was gravelly with hunger and lust.

"Not there!" he replied emphatically, as if he heard Jack's earlier thoughts. "I'll never last to the big finish." His whole body shook as if to emphasize the point. Jack couldn't help but smile a little a the idea of pushing Daniel over in one huge rush. But not this time.

 _No, not ever,_ he reminded himself. This was done when they walked away from this stupid blue planet.

"Neck. Arm. I don't care," Daniel finished.

Jack rose back to all fours, licked one long stripe up Daniel's cock, and continued to look into Daniel's face.

"I should... I should prep before you start," Daniel stammered, obviously embarrassed to be mentioning it. Jack shook his head.

"You have some lube or something?" he asked. Daniel stared up at him glassily, realization finally dawning in his face. He swore. Jack took the liberty of leaning down and kissing the profanities away.

"You probably couldn’t make it through a nice session of rimming, either, huh?" he asked, feeling the breath whoosh out of the man under him at the suggestion. "Thought so," he said. "Well, let's see how helpful our hosts are."

He rolled away from Daniel so that he could explore the drawers of the table by the bed.

He held up a small cup triumphantly.

"No first aid kit petroleum jelly for you!" Jack said. Daniel laughed, reaching for the jar.

"Nope," Jack said. "That’s my job. Over you go. Ass in the air." He prodded Daniel's hip gently.

Watching him suspiciously, Daniel did as requested, going to his elbows and knees, resting his forehead on his forearms. Waggling that perfect round ass just a little. Jack could see he was grinning to himself. Jack laid a solid, loudly resounding smack on the nearest buttcheek. Which got him as a reward a snort of amusement and a perfect handprint to admire.

"Spanking just makes me laugh, Jack," Daniel said.

"I'm sure that's a character flaw that has exasperated many girlfriends over time," Jack said, hoping that _he_ would make it to the big finish, as Daniel put it. Seeing that perky ass and its hole there all for him... He took a huge dollop of the cream in the tub and smeared it over Daniel's opening, enjoying watching it clench in response to the contact and the cold.

Working Daniel open was torture. One finger through the tight ring and Jack had to squeeze his own balls mercilessly. After that, he made it through the rest, though Daniel wasn't helping at all. He moaned like a cheap whore, squeezing down on Jack's fingers, rocking against the penetration more and more desperately.

"Whenever you're ready," Daniel finally offered in a tight, strained voice.

Jack didn't have to be asked twice. He smeared another palmful of the goop on his throbbing hard on, and knelt behind his friend, head against the still tight hole. He slipped off-target a couple of times in all the lube, but then he found the right angle with the right pressure and he slipped in.

Daniel took in a sharp breath as Jack came up against the resistance of his inner muscles. He backed off a bit, then with a long sigh, Daniel relaxed, and Jack was able to ease in with one long, deep thrust that brought him tight against Daniel's body.

They had done this before, but this position, staring down at Daniel's long smooth back, watching his dick disappear into Daniel's surrendering body, was completely different from laying back and letting Daniel ride him. In that moment, Daniel was Jack's. His to possess. His to have, to enjoy his body, for nourishment, for comfort, for passion. His. For one brief moment, he didn't care that it wasn't possible. He didn't care about Daniel's motivations. He just knew that Daniel belonged to him.

He bit him at the meeting of neck and shoulder. It was a deeper bite than he had ever used while feeding. He wrapped his arms around Daniel's chest lifting him up against Jack's body, impaling him even more violently on his prick.

"Do it," Daniel whimpered. "Yes."

Jack pumped his hips out and forward, rocking Daniel's body with the force, holding him hard, drinking more deeply than he ever had before. Daniel's blood was expanding him, Daniel's body was heating him. The energy loop was starting, setting up a sympathetic frission over Daniel's hot, living skin.

Jack shifted a hand down to grip Daniel's cock, then tumbled then both forward, so that Daniel was crushed under him, pinned by Jack's teeth and cock and dead weight, utterly accepting, moaning his pleasure, throbbing and coming in Jack's hard grip.

Jack continued to drink through Daniel's orgasm, Daniel's shudders and noises suggesting that it was a long one. He felt replete, and he could feel his own climax coming quickly. As Daniel went completely limp beneath him, Jack stopped taking blood, letting the healing process begin, kissing the wound, Daniel's shoulders, his soft hair, and he came, mouthing the back of Daniel's neck, drowning in the double pleasure of two satiated hungers.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vampire cannot live by (chicken) blood alone. Jack becomes a vampire.

He woke up with Daniel still half under him, sleeping peacefully. Jack felt hyper-energized and rarely optimistic. He couldn't stop himself from feeling happy and alive and certain that everything about today was going to be good. He studied Daniel's quiet features. The vulnerable, thin skin of his closed eyelids. His long, dark lashes. His slightly parted lips.

He tried to remind himself of Daniel's apparent combined martyr complex and vampire fetish. Didn't matter. It didn't shake his mood.

He then considered that today they were about to walk into a highly-charged complex political scenario where they didn't know all the players, but where Jack could easily project the motivations.

That helped bring him down enough to tear his eyes away from his lover and get into a more useful headspace. This treaty was in many ways the culmination of everything the SGC was working for, and yet, Jack couldn't pretend that today's ceremony was just another diplomatic event. It was a mission in some ways more dangerous than any other to his team. Jack wouldn't even be able to go in there with a tiny pocket knife. In this situation, with so many unknown and unpredictable factors, they were going in half-blind, their only defense intergalactic diplomatic immunity. Jack didn't like it one bit.

When Mal'esh barged in without knocking, Jack was putting a little extra shine on his shoes, but Daniel was sitting in bed blinking in rumpled confusion.

One look at the bite mark on Daniel's neck had Mal'esh smiling in relief. A second look at Jack, who was indeed looking almost completely normal again had him beaming.

"Thank goodness!" he said. "You looked horrible yesterday!"

"Thanks," Jack said gruffly. "You wanna think about knocking next time, buddy?"

"Oh, yes! My apologies! But vampyr... You know... We don't deal with vampyr every day here. They tend to be secretive, private people. I had to be sure that we could proceed with the ceremony today, and if you looked as horrid this morning as you did last night, well..." He shrugged.

"Thanks!" Jack said, much too brightly. Mal'esh got the message.

"I will leave you to prepare for the breakfast. _The Marwa Times_ is anxious for an interview."

"Great," Jack muttered as the man scurried back out the door.

* * *

"Grumpy Colonel is grumpy," Daniel said as they joined the procession of VIPs leaving what could only be described as a press breakfast and headed toward the venue for the signature ceremony.

"DanielJackson, I thought we all agreed that the limited vocabulary and redundant grammatical structures of the people of P37-258 were beneath your professional and academic stature," Teal'c reminded him.

Carter giggled.

"Major, _I_ thought we agreed that astrophysicists with P90's don't giggle," Jack grumped.

"They do when they're in short skirts and panty hose, sir," she shot back.

He gave her an appraising look as he stopped himself from fidgeting with his cover. "I _so_ did not join up to attend _functions_ ," he agreed.

"Hey, isn't this what you've always hoped for?" Daniel countered. "The opportunity to make useful allies, not just study ancient, dead civilizations?"

"Big honkin' space guns," Jack muttered. "Which, I point out, these people don't actually _have_. And just because it's all awesome-treaty-time doesn't mean that I have to like putting on a suit.".

"And funny little hat," Carter agreed.

"I see nothing wrong with your attire," Teal'c stated. He was looking very NFL lineman in his fedora and perfectly tailored Armani, Jack couldn't help thinking. Teal'c had a lot of spare dollars and not much to spend them on. Daniel was wearing his black gangster suit. The shirt's collar hid the bite mark that Jack was sure that both Carter and Teal'c had been trying to see earlier.

"Easy for you to say," Jack replied. "You used to spend your business day in armor with a giant snake helmet. A suit must seem like pajamas to you."

Daniel unkindly stepped on the heel of Jack's shoe in retaliation for the comment, but Jack caught the corner of Teal'c's mouth turning up in a tiny hint of a smile.

They passed through the open double doors into the atrium of the building. It was immense, suitably grandiose for the headquarters of a major government department. The impression that they could be anywhere in Washington, DC, made the event familiar and surreal at the same time.

Jack didn't like the look of the security arrangements. The civilian guard detail was in plain-clothes, with bulging armpits under suit jackets, complete with earpieces and sunglasses. Jack had the utmost respect for the Secret Service, but the crowd was too big, the room was too open. There weren't enough agents here to stop a large, well-planned attack.

Jack firmly reminded himself that there would be no large, well-planned attack. The only enemy on this planet were small, disorganized protest groups, none of which had the firepower or strategic intelligence to threaten a venue like this.

"There are no barricades out front," Carter muttered to him. "One fertilizer bomb could take out this entire lobby."

"Thanks for that, Carter. I had just convinced myself that the guys in the suits could handle whatever the terrorists could throw their way," he said.

"Sorry, sir. Force of habit," she replied contritely, as she smiled brightly for the press corps' representatives. Daniel was waving tentatively. Jack put on his best fang-less smile and gave the photographers new material for the kiddies' lunchboxes.

"Colonel O'Neill, when you're ready," Ambassador Rourk prompted through his own smile for the cameras.

Jack nodded and turned to his boys and girl.

"Alright, SG-1. Best behavior. I have to go off and be a superstar now." Jack took one more look around, feeling upside down. He was finding the skylights oppressive. Daniel was _glowing_ at him. He nodded to Teal'c and his fedora and turned to follow the Ambassador. Oh, Jack could _so_ do without this.

He took his place on the stage beside the podium, watching the sea of weird blue people in the auditorium. SG-1 was escorted down the long aisles of seats slightly ahead of the rest of the arriving crowd. They were given spots in the front row. In the context, everything about them screamed alien, from Carter's blond hair to Daniel's wingtips.

The Minister of the Stargate took the podium.

"Good afternoon and welcome all of you who have assembled here today to witness and be part of this historic event. I am honored to represent our entire planet in greeting and embracing the peoples of Earth. Today Zella enters a new epoch. By the signing of this treaty…"

It droned on from there. Ambassador Rourk was presented. Jack himself and SG-1 were recognized and honored. The entire time Jack's Spidey-sense was tingling, telling him that something was off about the audience, the security, everything and that it _wasn't_ just the bright natural light streaming in all around, not just the strange alien hormones and blood components, not just the weird yellow irises and slitted pupils of the Zellans fixed on him.

His eyes shifted over the room again and again.

It was almost a relief when all hell broke loose and he didn't have to wait anymore.

He heard the distinctive sounds of helicopters before the security staff got the word over their earpieces. Jack heard the warning go out. He caught Carter's eye and gave her the head's up. As the attackers came through the windows and skylights, rappelling fast, SG-1 was already moving, heading for the ambassador.

Jack was off the stage in three long steps, launching into the air and latching onto the nearest descending attacker. The guy's eyes widened in shock at Jack's fanged snarl before Jack crushed his windpipe. Jack could see the room erupting all around SG-1. The terrorists were supplying weapons from above to their allies in the crowd below.

"Carter!" Jack bellowed. He threw her his victim's larger firearm, then tucked the Zellan's sidearm into his own waistband. He appraised the situation below again and made a decision. It wouldn't matter if he stayed. The Tauri were the obvious targets of this raid, and SG-1 would be overrun no matter what he did. It looked like security had at least managed to get Ambassador Rourk out. So instead of going down, Jack went up. He climbed the rope hand-over-hand, reaching the roof in seconds.

There were half a dozen flying-machines on the roof, remarkably similar to Earth helicopters. He pulled out his weapon and started taking out the pilots. The action of the Zellan gun was gratifyingly fast and accurate. It was tricky to find a weapon that could keep up with Jack's new ability to acquire a target and fire. Within a minute he had the roof to himself and a bunch of whirly birds to choose from, if it came to that.

Jack collected a small armory's worth of fallen firearms, then dropped to his knees at a broken skylight. It was complete chaos below, civilians screaming and running, pushing and trampling. People injured and dying. The blood smelled different. Harsh, like cleaning fluid or paint. Alien.

Jack was not at all surprised to see that terrorists were already using rope ascenders to lift themselves and SG-1 out of the melee on the auditorium floor towards the roof and their expected airborne getaway.

The impact to his right shoulder came as a complete shock. The force of it twisted him sideways. A second shot caught his thigh. Jack thought the sniper must have a crap sight, even as he tried to get his bearings and find some shelter from a third, possibly better, shot. He belly-crawled behind one of the birds, not the greatest cover, then spotted a hutch on the roof, hiding HVAC or an elevator shaft cap or who the hell cared. Jack went for it, his shoulder and thigh screaming protest, then lay there, flopped, panting on his back in the merciful shade, listening to the scramble of the terrorists pulling themselves and SG-1 onto the rooftop.

He heard them discover their dead pilots, cursing and swearing, but they recovered quickly, finding secondary staff to fly, shoving and manhandling a shouting Daniel into one of the machines and dumping Carter and Teal'c in with him. He could smell the blood of his team. It was almost enough to bring him out of his hidey-hole in a killing rage, but he didn't know if the sniper was still looking for him or if he would be able to take them all with the one heavier gun he had dragged across the roof with him despite the sniper's strikes.

Jack sat up and scurried around the hutch on all-fours, putting it between himself and the whirly-bird, already firing up and getting airborne. He peered around the corner of his shelter. He immediately spotted the sniper on the rooftop of a building about a klik away. He wasn't watching Jack's location anymore, focused instead on wrecking havoc in the stampeding crowd below. Jack took his chance, blasting across the roof. He was slower than he would have liked with the bullet lodged in his thigh and it hurt like a mother-fucker. The wound in his chest didn't feel great either, but it was nothing like when he had been shot before. He made it to the nearest helicopter apparently without anyone noticing him. SG-1's captors were already launched and flying high and fast away from him.

Jack hadn't flown a rotary-wing aircraft in years, though once upon a time he had been certified. He stared at the controls in front of him and hoped like hell the people of this world had solved the engineering problems with flight the same way Earth's inventors had. He hit a couple of likely looking switches and got ignition on the second one. He tried not to be too concerned about what the first switch might have done. He couldn't help thinking it would have been much easier if they had just labeled the various gages and controls with a Latin-based alphabet rather than the Korean looking squiggles and circles, fercryin'outloud.

With a final hope that a vampire couldn't bleed to death (a quick check suggested his blood loss was currently at slow ooze, so okay, not too bad) and a quick prayer to the machine around him, Jack started pressing foot controls.

He got lift fast. He squinted and watched through one eye as he pushed forward on the stick protruding from the dash in front of him. Forward motion, yes! He was lifting and flying and a few more experiments had him twisting and turning and maybe it wasn't riding a bike, but it was close to it. And it made him remember why he preferred jets, but hey, he knew he could get somewhere, and that was what he needed right now. But first, he found that his experimentation with the controls had him flying right over the sniper's position. He leaned out the open door of the helicopter. The gunman turned and raised his weapon. Jack ducked back inside and instead of trying to pick the Zellan off with his own gun, he just swiped him off the roof with the bird's landing skids. If they guy was lucky, he might survive the fall. Jack wished he could have risked trying to knick him with his tail rotor.

He turned the bird and headed after SG-1. They were far ahead of him now. He wasn't sure he would be able to see them at all if it weren't for his preternatural vampire sight. He still had his aviator glasses on. Which was a good thing, or he wouldn't be able to fly anything in this bright, desert sun. The powder blue sand below was just as disconcerting as always. He realized that it had only been about five minutes or so since the first window had cracked above the auditorium. So he wasn't really that far behind them, only a couple of minutes, and as he got a knack for the controls, as the machine started to speak to him, work with him, as every flying machine always had (well, except for that one stupid death glider that was determined to kill him), he pushed a little to make up distance. But once he was sure he wouldn't lose them, he hung back and followed. No sense tipping them off, if he could help it.

The bird's proximity alarms started yowling just before he felt the whole machine shudder.

 _Shit_ , was all he had time to think before he was struggling with the controls, trying to manage some kind of survivable landing while his the rotors stuttered. He swore out loud when he smelled leaking fuel. When he got low enough to the ground he had a heartbeat to think he was going way too fast then he jumped for it anyway.

* * *

When he came to there was someone kicking him. It hurt. God, it hurt! He figured there was a good chance he had a couple of broken ribs before they started. He gasped and heard his own croaked cry as yet another boot connected with his body. He could smell the anger and grief rolling off their alien blue bodies in waves of hatred.

There was a pause in the fury and he realized that the kicking might have been for emphasis, as there was some sort of argument or debate going on.

"Shut it, Dimont. We can't kill him enough times for everybody he murdered. But maybe we can kill him _enough_."

Oh, that did not sound good.

Dragging himself out of the depths of pain, Jack moved. He was amazed at what his body could now do; the level of abuse it could now withstand. He made it to his feet and wasn't even too wobbly. Until he felt something crash down on his head from behind and then there was nothing.

* * *

The bright light dragged him out of the depths of comforting darkness. They were burning him. He screamed and tried to writhe away from the heat and the light, but it was impossible. His arms and legs were immobile. His eyes were blind in the searing, painful light, covered with clouded cataracts that let the brightness in, but nothing else. His tongue was swollen. He felt the course, dry, hot, sandy dirt grinding into his cracking, frying skin. His skin was pulling in on itself, stretching and breaking. He screamed and screamed and screamed, even as he heard his screams die to whispers die to nothing in the horrible, horrible light.

* * *

He woke up again in cool darkness. He thought maybe his eyes were still blind. He could usually see in the dark.

He was resting against Daniel. He knew from the beat of his friend's familiar pulse, even before he felt the silk of his skin or smelled his beloved scent.

He heard his own whimper.

Daniel shushed him.

"Sam," Daniel murmured, soft and gentle, but urgent.

Then Carter was hushing him, too.

"Drink," she said, and he felt blood drip onto his lips. He knew the bright taste of it before it touched his tongue. Her blood. He wanted to say no, Daniel was bad enough, never Carter, but he was too weak to turn his head away. Daniel was holding him, solid as stone, soft as down, and Jack drank Carter's blood.

He felt how they were oriented, with his broken abused body lying over Daniel like a mattress. Carter was climbing on top of him, settling with her pelvis locked against his. Only at the shock of the familiar, moist heat of a woman against him did he realize she was naked, Daniel was naked, they were both there, and he knew what they were planning. She pressed her wrist against his mouth.

"Daniel, what if he can't…" Carter began. Traitor, but she was right. He couldn't imagine getting it up, under the circumstances. He wondered exactly how bad it was if their naked bodies and throbbing blood, circulating all around him, couldn't get him hard. A couple of bullet wounds, a fall from a crashing helicopter, a good beating, a bash over the head, frying in the sun; eventually it takes it's toll on the undead, ya know?

"No, Major, get off _now_ ," he wanted to order her, but his mouth was full of blood.

"We'll improvise," Daniel said reassuringly. She was already feeling the effects of the vampire glamor, shifting against Jack's unresponsive body restively.

Daniel started movinging him, and Carter lifted her weight off them. The pain of Daniel's grip on his skin was drowned in Carter's blood bathing his parched, ravaged throat.

"Stay like that," Daniel ordered her breathlessly. He was manipulating Jack's limp, almost completely unresponsive body, and then Jack knew why. As Daniel's erection pressed into the seam of Jack's ass, he gave another whimper against Carter's wrist, but he wasn't sure himself if it was a protest or a plea. Apparently, even if he couldn't get it up, he could still get fucked. His body was relaxing and opening for Daniel despite the fact that there was only Daniel's precum for lube.

"Sorry," Daniel was whispering into his ear, even as Jack's internal muscles gave way without any resistance and he was completely impaled in one long, fast stroke. All three of them gasped, and Carter was back on them without a pause.

Jack was sucking hard on her arm now and she was wet and even hotter. Her blood flowed over his tongue. He could feel it soothing his flayed skin, easing the burning in his eyes. Slowly, he realized that it wasn't pitch black. Greys and shadows came back to him. He realized her blood was healing his sunblindness, too.

His chest and thigh and ribs still burned and throbbed, but he could distinguish them now from the general mass of pain that had enveloped him.

"SamanthaCarter," came a quiet, insistent voice. "He has taken enough from you. You must stop."

He felt Teal'c's lifeblood so near. He knew now that the Jaffa's exotic flavors were beyond him. He couldn't drink.

"Teal'c, let her finish the cycle," Daniel said, just as Teal'c's strong hand wrapped firmly around Carter's forearm.

The shock of the contact hit all of them. A dry orgasm of pure blood and power flooded through him. He felt Daniel stiffen, and Carter yelled. Teal'c gave a startled grunt and dropped out of his crouch to his knees at Carter's side. Jack made his jaws unlock to release her from his bite. Funny, he couldn’t remember biting her.

"Sam, Sam," he realized Daniel was repeating from the bottom of the suddenly very heavy pile.

Teal'c rebounded quickly, murmuring soothingly to Carter in his own language, and gently lifting her away. She caught her own weight on her feet and staggered a few yards away in the darkness before she sat hard on her naked butt and leaned her forehead on her bent knees. Teal'c stood beside her, shaking off the daze of the surprise orgasm and resuming watching the night.

With a new clarity, Jack realized they were still right where he had been all day, lying out under the open sky. There was the silohouette of an alien flying machine looming over them. He could smell the still-smoldering wreckage of his own helicopter.

And Daniel was still hard inside him. He snaked his arm around, pressing his pulse against Jack's lips.

"More, Jack," Daniel urged him. Daniel's blood. Again.

He sank into Daniel, and welcomed Daniel into himself. He focused his attention on where he and Daniel were joined, willed away the pain of everything else. He drank.

The power was building again rapidly, looping back and forth between them in a mobius strip, reverberating and vibrating. He didn't know how Daniel had held out the first time, but he didn't hold out much longer. His orgasm swamped them while Jack was still feeding and Jack didn't stop. He drank and drank, and the glow of the power ran out through his arms and legs, filled his chest, expanded his consciousness, so that he felt Carter's wet cunt throbbing in sympathy to the second orgasm, felt the low groan in Teal'c's chest, felt the weight of the helicopter on the ground beside them, felt the heat of the dead machine farther away, felt the whole sandy wasteland, all the inhabitants of this weird, blue planet.

Teal'c intervened again, carefully removing Daniel's arm from Jack's grasp. This time he broke the loop, even as he set off aftershocks in all four of them. Jack let Daniel go, didn't fight Teal'c's judgment that Daniel had given enough. He found he had the strength to roll away. The slide of Daniel's soft, spent dick and the following rush of fluid onto his flesh left him shivering as Teal'c spoke to Daniel.

"Yeah, yeah," Daniel said shakily as Teal'c helped him to sit. "Jack?" he asked worriedly.

"Just catching my breath," Jack grated out. Teal'c's hands were on him, lifting him, carrying him to the helicopter.

"Good work, team," he said weakly, unable to give the statement the right amount of irony. Carter laughed. It should have been nervous, but it was just light and clear in the embracing darkness. Teal'c was pulling and tugging at him, putting clothes on him, he realized. As he focused and tried to help, he realized they were his own Class A's, retrieved from where they had been thrown aside. He gave a wheezy little laugh of his own at the idea of pulling the uniform over his bloody body, especially his filthy, semen coated ass.

Daniel staggered into view, half-dressed. He wore slacks. The suit jacket was hanging off of him, but his feet and chest were bare. Carter, who'd lost her hosiery, but otherwise looked practically spit and polish, aside from the blood everywhere, stepped up to him and offered him his shirt and glasses. Daniel wrapped his arms around her and just held her for a moment. She collapsed against him with another light laugh. Teal'c was buttoning Jack's shirt. He batted the big man's hands away and finished the task himself.

"As usual, SG-1 wins because the bad guys are so damned stupid," Daniel commented, coming to stand over him. It was too dark for Daniel to really see anything. Jack could see the little wrinkle of worry between his eyes.

"Hey!" Carter objected from the pilot's seat.

"Sam, anybody who ties _me_ up, but leaves you with your hands free is an idiot. There is nothing to debate."

"Yeah, well, I want a little credit for skill and initiative," she said warmly. "OK. I don't think we should fly back too close to the city in the terrorists' own helicopter. We'll have to find some place to put down closer to civilization and if nobody notices us Teal'c and I can walk the rest and send the cavalry back for you guys."

He no longer felt like he would die in this desert. He was a mess. He could feel every broken bone and the two bullet wounds and the knot on the back of his skull. But with the power pulsing through him, in syncopated rhythm to the combined heartbeats of SG-1, he felt strong enough to walk back to the infirmary if he had to. And he didn't.

"They're coming already," Jack informed them, staring up at the strange stars above him and hearing four, possibly five, responding helicopters, flying in fast from the west.

Teal'c and Daniel pulled him to his feet and his ribs and every fracture in his body screamed, but they were on their way home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vampire cannot live by (chicken) blood alone. Jack becomes a vampire.

"So, how long am I in for this time?" Jack asked the doctor. Jack had three broken ribs, two bullet wounds and a moderately severe concussion, in addition to third degree burns over large areas of his body. It was going to be a long, unpleasant recovery, he was sure. Not to mention that his hunger was fierce. Fraiser's blood was right there in her carotid artery, smelling tart and citrusy.

"Possibly not long," she replied. "I'm moving you to a suite." He averted his eyes from her pulse, refocusing on the infirmary's ceiling tiles. They should put motivational posters up there, he thought, considering the amount of time SG teams spent flat on their backs.

"VIP quarters?" Jack drawled. "Not that I don't appreciate the upgrade…" He hoped she hadn't noticed him staring at her neck.

"Apparently," Fraiser interrupted him, "according to the materials our old friend Gyan gave to Daniel, vampire medicine is all about setting the bones, digging out the bullets, then spending a lot of quality time with your Companion. And possibly every other Companion in the village."

Jack sat up sharply and instantly regretted it, pride and vampire stamina the only things preventing him from collapsing back onto the bed.

"No," he said firmly, not panicking. "No more SG-1 sexual healing. Not Daniel, and _not_ Carter," he whispered in the almost empty infirmary, just to be one hundred percent clear.

Fraiser looked uncertain, possibly persuadable.

"Will Gyan let me go there?"

"Janet, could we have a moment?" Daniel asked from the doorway. Jack felt his hunger throb. His teeth ached for Daniel's rich, dark flavor.

"No," Jack growled, just as Fraiser said, "Of course," and marched to her office, heels clicking.

Daniel pulled up one of the hard plastic chairs and sat by the raised head of Jack's bed. The tie he felt to Daniel, created by the feedings on Zella, made Jack feel dizzy with want.

"Yes, Jack," said Daniel in little more than a murmur. "I know you hate what happened to you. I know you think you shouldn't exploit us, or any of the other people who care about you and want to help you."

Jack wanted to smack the understanding kindness right off Daniel's face, even as some weak, lost part of him deep inside sought to cling to that gentle voice for dear life.

"I'm not feeding on you anymore. Or Carter. Or anybody else. Zella was… I appreciate what you did," he said harshly. "But not again. I have other options. I'll go to Gyan's planet, where I belong."

"Give it a rest, Jack! Let it go! I _want_ to do this," Daniel whispered fiercely. "I want to do it as your friend. But I won't deny I want to do it for the sex, either."

When Jack tried to argue, Daniel slapped his palm over Jack's mouth.

"I want to do this for the chance to really be your Companion," Daniel breathed, so softly that Jack thought he only heard him because of his vampire ears.

"You want me. Not to feed on. As your lover. You already did, before. Didn't you? Gyan kept calling me your "beloved," not your Companion. I want that."

Daniel was blushing furiously as he eased his hand away, freeing Jack to speak again. Everything about Daniel's scent, his stuttering heart beat, his body language, told Jack he was completely sincere.

"I love you, too," Daniel stated simply.

Jack just stared at him, speechless.

Daniel waited, watching him, but after almost a minute of Jack just staring back, Daniel rolled his eyes and stood. Fraiser appeared, as if by magic, pushing a wheelchair.

"Can we get him moved as soon as possible?" Daniel asked needlessly.

"Help me," she ordered.

* * *

Teal'c was waiting for them in the hall. He opened the door. The room's lighting was adjusted to the softest setting, warmed by the addition of Teal'c's candles. He heard the distinctive sound of a laptop snicking closed. Carter, sitting propped against a huge pile of pillows, looked sheepish.

Teal'c and Daniel each had him by an arm, urging him out of the chair, taking his weight when his wobbly legs seemed likely to give out on him. Carter was busy resituating the pillows as Daniel's hands slipped under the loose elastic of the infirmary scrubs. Jack was already bare-chested, aside from the tight wrapping around his ribs and shoulder.

Carter had been waiting for them mostly naked, just in unexpectedly pink panties and bra. Watching them guide him to the bed, she looked more worried than seductive. He thought that was probably a reasonable reaction to the cracked, angry burns covering the exposed part of his torso, his arms, his legs. He could feel the lack of elasticity in this face. He was hurting and he was so hungry. He could already taste the bright, clear flavor of her on his tongue, carried in the warm, slight currents of air in the enclosed space of the suite. He tried to do what Daniel – what they all – wanted him to do and get past it. He needed the help she wanted to give him.

"We know you can feed normally on the same person every day," Daniel said. "And from our experience on Zella, we know Teal'c can contribute energy from outside, even if you are not drinking his blood. So we're hoping that you can feed twice a day from us, with Teal'c contributing an extra wallop, and hopefully it will be enough."

"Normal feedings," Jack ground out. In the middle of them, with Zella only hours behind them, with his need so great, he could barely form the words. "What if I don't feed normally? What if I take too much?"

He found himself perched over Carter, Daniel and Teal'c both touching him, but barely supporting him any longer. Carter looked a little alarmed at the three of them hulking over her.

"You gonna be okay with this, Major?" he asked, even as her pulse drew him down inexorably.

"Yes, sir," she replied reflexively. "Though honestly, this whole vampire lust thing is kinda freaking me out." She was radiating a weird combination of anxiety and desire. Jack was sure the second thing could only be the vampire glamour, as he wasn't looking like anybody's dream lover at the moment.

"Nobody answered my other question," he prompted, his lips caressing her skin. He was holding himself back by sheer, fading, willpower, waiting for reassurance they wouldn't let him hurt them.

"Dr. Fraiser has set strict parameters for DanielJackson and MajorCarter's blood pressure, heart rate and temperature, as well as providing other guidelines. It will be my duty to review their health after each encounter," Teal'c rumbled to his right, and that was all Jack could wait to hear, as he applied his fangs to her soft, delicate flesh and took the first sips of her blood.

He was naked, but she wasn't and she wasn't going to be. He could feel the heat of her arousal through the thin fabric of her panties, and he pressed against her clit, rubbing, pleasuring without penetration.

"Holy Hannah," she breathed, her arms and legs wrapping tight around him. Daniel and Teal'c were still touching them both, Teal'c's fingers tangling in Jack's hair, Daniel's hand kneading into Jack's ass. Carter laughed breathlessly, as she had on Zella, pushing back against him. He didn't know why it surprised him to learn that Carter was happy in bed. Not to mention aggressive. She bucked under him, resetting their hips to her satisfaction, then driving hard into his rhythm. He thought she would have flipped them and ridden him, if it hadn't been for his grip on her neck.

Distantly, he heard Teal'c breathe, "Samantha," but it was Daniel who tipped them over, cursing as he climaxed hard on the heels of Teal'c's whisper. Carter laughed in a delighted burble as the three men came in a cascade that slammed into her last. She gave a full-throated yell as Jack seized her orgasm and rode it, drinking through it. An aftershock shook the whole group when Jack finally pulled his teeth away.

Jack rolled to his good side, away from Teal'c. Daniel was braced up on one elbow, breathing hard. Jack was basking in the glow of the power they had released. It defied principles of conservation of energy. He didn't understand how what they did could make them all more, but he could feel that all three of them were brimming over with whatever internal energy it was that drove their glowing auras.

Daniel finally regained enough composure to make his way to the suite's bathroom and bring back a warm, damp wash cloth. He reached across Jack to wipe the fluid from Sam's belly, setting off another wave of bright laughter and a responding grin from Daniel.

"I'm glad you all think this is so funny," Jack groused for the sake of form.

Teal'c stirred from where he had collapsed on the other side of Carter. He began by taking her blood pressure, then her pulse and temperature. He dutifully noted the statistics, moving on to Daniel, then putting the cuff around Jack's unbandaged arm.

"How do they look, T?" Jack asked.

"Within Dr. Frasier's parameters," Teal'c rumbled.

"DanielJackson, if you would?" Teal'c prompted him. Daniel snuffled and jerked upright in response to hearing his own name, blinking guiltily.

"Were you already drooling on me?" Jack asked indignantly.

Daniel just grunted noncommittally in response, taking the stethoscope from Teal'c and finishing up Dr. Fraisier's required statistics-gathering, noting down Teal'c's own blood pressure, pulse, temperature.

"I'm hungry," Carter announced to the room. Recent exsanguinations aside, she got up and started putting clothes on.

"Hey!" Jack protested.

"Samantha," Teal'c admonished her. "Allow me to call for refreshment to be brought."

She made a rude, dismissive noise, waving them both off.

"Yes, room service," Daniel slurred, slumping back, his duties done. "I want pie," he ordered.

"Lemon meringue would be very satisfactory," Teal'c agreed, watching his teammate worriedly. Carter dialed the phone and began a long, complicated conversation with the kitchen that Jack stopped trying to follow, though he noted that it sounded like she scored a whole lemon meringue pie. Jack was drowsing between Daniel, who was already snoring, and Teal'c, who was suspiciously relaxed on his other side.

"Ten minutes," Carter announced, bursting with energy to counter-balance the men's lethargy, finally returning from the living area. She humphed upon seeing them all asleep, or nearly.

"Make space," she growled, prodding Teal'c as she climbed over him to squirm between him and Jack. "And you're getting the door." When Teal'c lifted his head to look at her, raising an eyebrow, she said, "Bite mark," and continued pushing and shoving at them to make herself comfortable.

"This bed is not sufficient for four people," Teal'c complained, as Jack let himself join Daniel in a little nap.

* * *

When he woke up he knew it was hours later, though his internal clock was still off and he couldn't say exactly how long. Teal'c and Carter were watching _The Empire Strikes Back_ on the DVD player in the living area. Daniel was still sleeping next to him. Jack was already as hungry again as he usually would be three or four days after. As he turned his head to look at Daniel he found his friend already looking at him with clear eyes.

"How long did we sleep?" Jack asked softly. This close to Daniel, looking into those beautiful eyes, the world fell away and for a moment there was nothing but his Beloved Companion.

Daniel pushed up to squint at the clock on the bedside table.

"Wow. A long time," Daniel murmured. "You're hungry," he added.

"I'm starting to feel like I'm always going to be hungry," Jack said, raising on his own elbows, ignoring his complaining shoulder wound, seeking Daniel's mobile mouth.

"If you hurt yourself, you're going to get me in trouble with Janet," Daniel admonished him, urging him back down, but following avidly after him.

They spent a long time kissing wetly. Jack pushed back against his hunger, indulging in the pure hedonism of tongues and arms and legs and fingers, so unexpected. Daniel loved him. It was a fantasy. It was unrealistic. He wasn't sure what it would mean, but he believed it. Daniel Jackson would not say those particular words if they weren't true.

"What's the best way to do this?" Daniel whispered. It made Jack's heart skip a beat, knowing that, just like him, Daniel didn't want to attract their friends yet. "I think you should stay on your back."

Because of how they had left him in the sun, there were no burns on his back.

"Probably the least strain would be if I blew you," Daniel continued. He was eyeing Jack's erection with a hungry look.

"It seems awkward for the bite," Jack breathed, watching Daniel turning his attention to Jack's cock.

"Sixty-nine," Daniel murmured. "There are good veins down there."

Jack groaned as Daniel climbed over him and closed his mouth around Jack's dick.

Daniel's thighs were either side of Jack's head. His blood was there, and in his red erection, hanging, brushing against Jack's sternum. The need for that blood briefly overwhelmed the amazing feeling of Daniel's mouth on him. He turned his head to the right and drank.

The initial penetration brought a sharp intake of breath from Daniel.

"Sam. Teal'c," Daniel called in a strangled voice. He took Jack in his mouth again, not waiting for them. Jack thought they might both have died from embarrassment to be found this way, if the opening, flooding pleasure of the feeding left any space for that much thought.

Carter and Teal'c didn't try anything fancy. Teal'c lay down next to him, his broad warm back pressing into Daniel's leg and Jack's side and hip. At first he wasn't sure what had become of Carter. Then she threw her leg over Teal'c's knees, foot light against Jack's calf. He thought maybe her hand was somewhere on Daniel's leg. He was also pretty sure the other two were up to something over there, because the power surge was like a goddam vertical takeoff. Daniel was spurting all over Jack's chest, Carter moaned deeply as Teal'c grunted harshly, and Jack came last, releasing his bite just before he shattered into a hundred bright shards and the room faded away.

He woke to Carter shaking him.

"Sir," she was calling insistently. "Colonel? You need to wake up. Daniel didn't stop bleeding."

He jerked fully awake with a shock.

"How long?" he asked sharply.

"Only about a minute. Can you fix this, or do we need to call Janet?" she asked him. He was gratified to see Teal'c already had the phone in his hand. He wasn't fooling around. Good. Safety first.

Jack rolled up to his hands and knees. He was already feeling huge improvement, as if he had been recovering for days, or even a couple of weeks. He was breathing easier around the ribs. The horrifying burns on his hands and arms had faded to tender-looking new pink skin.

Daniel was out cold. Blood was welling slowly from the wound. Daniel wasn't bleeding out by any means – probably the reason Carter thought Jack might be able to resolve this on his own. Jack followed the scent of Daniel's blood and started licking the wound clean. He didn't really know what he did that healed the bite site, whether it was the physical contact or his saliva or something else. As he savored the blood, he placed his hands on Daniel, one over his slowly beating heart, the other on his thigh by the wound. He heard the doctor arrive. She didn’t try to stop him, just started checking Daniel's vitals.

"Sir?" she finally addressed him.

He was pretty sure Daniel was fine. He sat back and let her look. Daniels' skin was almost smooth, the bite even less distinct than the one on Carter's neck.

"Well," the doctor said, looking around at them. "Looks good now." Her eyes fell on Jack appraisingly and he was suddenly very conscious of not having a stitch of clothes on. That must have been a scene to arrive and see: naked colonel, ass in the air, licking inner thigh of naked, unconscious civilian consultant. He had yet new respect for Fraiser's professionalism.

"The burns are healing quickly," she commented. "Since I'm here anyway, let's have a look at you."

Teal'c and Carter were busy taking each other's vitals. Jack tried not to give that a double entendre in his head and simultaneously wondered how this command was going to hold together once they all got done fucking like bunnies to save the damned vampire. The doc peeled away the dressing on his thigh first. Jack had a fair amount of experience with bullet wounds, both his own and other people's, and he didn't need Fraiser to tell him that this one was looking pretty good. She hummed once under her breath, probing the area around the wound with careful fingers, finally leaving it uncovered as she turned her attention to the shoulder. More humming. Jack winced as he realized that his dressing was probably covered with Daniel's cum.

"Lay back, Colonel, let's have a look at those ribs," she ordered him. He did as instructed. He was amazed. Nothing hurt particularly.

Dr. Fraiser broke out into a huge grin.

"Well," she said. "If group sex could just cure all of my patients this way, I'd have the fraternization regs turned on their heads in no time! The gunshot wounds are well on their way to healed with no sign of infection and minimal scarring. The fractures are coming along nicely. And the burns! Just for the sake of burns alone I wish I could bottle this!" She waved a hand vaguely to indicate what they had done for him.

"I'm not going to bother with putting any of this back," she said as she gathered up the discarded bandages and wrappings. "Gyan's instructions are for a minimum of forty-eight hours with your Companion, and I like the safety in numbers here, so I'm going to ask if the volunteers will stay for another day?" Teal'c and Carter both nodded. Daniel was still out cold.

"Thank you. So..." It was as if the doctor had suddenly realized that she was standing in the middle of an interrupted orgy.

* * *

He didn't catch them at it, but he woke up after a particularly graphic wet dream covered in his own spunk to find Daniel mounting him, aggressively attacking his mouth.

"Teef!" he protested around Daniel's tongue.

Daniel pulled back a moment, "You're kidding right?" he said breathlessly, before diving back in, rubbing frantically in the slick on Jack's belly. Jack swore Daniel deliberately tongued a fang, the resulting drop of blood a sweet burst of spicy Daniel on Jack's palate. Too sated after their recent feedings to want more, Jack twined their tongues together, willing the hurt away, absorbing the warm glow of Daniel's orgasm as he went rigid and still, then collapsed on Jack's chest.

Jack prodded Carter's limp foot with one toe.

"Next time, get a room, people!" he complained.

The only response was a non-committal grunt from Teal'c.

* * *

He looked himself over in the suite bathroom's mirror. He looked better than he had in months. Hell, maybe years. Like some kind of ad for metrosexual skin care products or hair gels or something. Well, no Neutrogena product was going to do this. There was no trace of the burn left. Just healthy, smooth skin to replace it. Hardly a scar to be seen from the gunshots. The ribs were still a little stiff, but he could move and breathe with minimal pain. Seventy-two hours later it was as if Zella had never happened.

He slipped into clothes and left his team sleeping peacefully. He sauntered into the infirmary at 1500. There wasn't much going on; the beds miraculously empty. Fraiser took one look at him and shook her head.

"Hop up on a table, Colonel," she said. "Let me clear you to go home."

* * *

 _Epilogue_

Jack sat on the deck and looked out over the yard. They had a pool now. He liked swimming laps at night. Daniel sometimes came out to complain about the mosquitos, though Jack mostly encouraged him to sleep when he wasn't working. The greatroom that was Daniel's library on the second floor overlooked the back yard. Often Jack swam in the light of Daniel's all-nighters.

It was too cold for swimming tonight. Jack had already shut down the pool for winter.

Daniel came up behind him. Jack could smell the dishwater on his hands and the spicy, tangy flavor of Daniel's dinner of homemade cheese enchiladas clinging to his clothes.

"Mission tomorrow," Daniel stated, as if Jack needed reminding. "I'm going up to bed. You coming soon?"

Jack turned to smile at him.

"Soon," he agreed. He turned his eyes back to the stars. Daniel settled into the chair beside him. A warm, comforting presence. Jack reached out and lay his right hand over the pulse in Daniel's wrist. The strong steady beat said _home_ more than anything about their shared residence.

He inhaled another deep breath of Daniel and drifted on the thrum of his beating heart.

END


End file.
